Garth's Story
by Humphrey Loves Kate
Summary: Garth. He's one of the main characters in Alpha and Omega, but his past is completely unknown. What happened to his family? Why does he, a hot-shot alpha, fall in love with a shy, somewhat seclusive omega? How did he become the wolf we see in Alpha and Omega? Loaded with romance, adventure, hurt and comfort, Garth's Story shows what really happened in this wolf's interesting life.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note:**

**This is my very first Alpha and Omega story on here! I am really really really excited and hope that you all will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy typing it out. Anyway, this is Garth's Story. I really like Garth and thought that there are so many Kate, Humphrey and Lilly stories here that Garth deserves a shot. So here, I will be providing you all with a detailed history of the character Garth. Along the way, we'll see adventure, fun themes, sadness, happiness, and of course romance! I really did try to emphasize the romantic side to Garth's history as you will see in chapters to come. This story follows Garth from his puppyhood before the movie, to him and Lilly during the movie, and a few surprises that will supposedly take place after the movie! Without further ado, this is Garth's Story!**

Chapter One

Introduction

A few years ago, when Jasper Park, Canada was in one of its usual mild and beautiful summer days, a young male wolf was playing outside of his parent's den. This particular wolf was named Garth, and this is his story.

Garth was a very fun and cheerful wolf. He never looked down on anyone and was famous for putting others, especially his family members, before himself. This wasn't easy for such a young wolf who barely knew anything about the world; and yet, he might have been so kind because he had little knowledge of the world outside his happy environment. His outer appearance well resembled his character: smiling, happy, peaceful. Long, bushy red fur flowed over his back, while his face was a calm crème color. Starting just above his eyes, the crème color ran all the way down Garth's energetic underbody and ended just where the red on his back began. The fun and cheerful appearance was further highlighted by Garth's red legs and white ankles and feet.

Garth's dad, Tony, and his mother, Mary, were both kind and rather young adult wolves. Leading their own pack, the Eastern Pack, Tony and Mary were insanely happy with their amazing son Garth. In the evening, long after Garth had retreated to his sleeping corner of their cozy cave-like den, they were always talking about how glad they were that Garth was born. Tony was especially happy that they had a son rather than a daughter. Mary said she didn't care which sex their child belonged to. But they both knew one thing was certain, Garth would always be there precious, cheerful bundle of fur.

**Author Note (Again): Please review, and let me know of any inconsistencies. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

On yet another beautiful and perfect day, Tony walked over to Garth's corner of the den early in the morning. Today was the first day of Garth's hunting lessons, and Tony wanted to get an early start on teaching his son.

"Wake up son," Tony cheerfully greeted his favorite (and only) son. "Today's the big day."

With several yawns and slow movements, Garth replied in his child voice, "What big day? It's gotta be at the most 5 a.m."

"Exactly," Tony responded. "We need an early start for hunting. Besides, this is when all the animals wake up and start searching for breakfast."

"Wait; did you say 'hunting'? Today?" Garth's excitement grew. "Well let's go, go, go!"

"Come on!"

Tony and Garth quietly passed by a peacefully sleeping Mary and exited the den. Once outdoors (well, out "cave-doors") they hopped down the cliff in which their den resided in. Loaded with long and lush green grass, the bottom felt smooth and soft to their still half asleep feet. Garth looked far into the distance and discovered a few early caribou out for breakfast.

"Dad, look!" Garth shouted. "There's caribou up there! Which one should we go for?"

Pleased with Garth's enthusiasm, Tony slowed a jumping Garth down. "Wait a second there, buddy. We can't just go charging into a group of caribou on your first day. We need to start with smaller prey, or as I like to call them, level one specimens."

Garth was confused. "Huh?"

"Rabbits."

"OHHHHHHH! Where can we find them?"

"Over in the forest," Tony exclaimed gesturing toward the right to the start of a thick and dark forest.

"Ummm, if you say so, I guess," Garth replied in a disguised nervous tone. Deep down, Garth was a bit afraid of the forest. It was very dark once you got into it, and there were strange creatures: birds that made noises besides chirps (turkeys), dwarf, deformed caribou without antlers (deer) and tiny, mysterious bugs that caused you to itch wherever they landed on you (mosquitos). Because of all this, Garth never ventured into the unknown forest without one of his parents, or an older wolf pup. Reluctantly, he followed his dad.

Inside the forest Garth stuck to Tony's right side like glue.

"Umm, Garth…" Tony began sensing his son's uneasiness. "We can find a rabbit a lot quicker if we, you know, spread out."

"Hu- what?" Garth jumped. "Oh! Right. Spread out. Got it." Garth ventured to the right and Tony veered towards the left. Still nervous, Garth kept a watchful eye on his dad.

Trying to look busy, Garth began sniffing. "Hey dad! What does a rabbit smell like?"

Tony had never been asked this before, so he wasn't quite sure on how to describe a new smell to his son. "Well… it smells… kind of cheap."

Garth turned back to Tony and made a skeptical face.

"You know… earthy… dirty… with a hint of grass… Yeah! That's it!"

"Gotcha!"

Garth looked for one of these smells. _Well there's plenty of earth_, he thought. Venturing further away from his dad, Garth looked for a dirty smell. Gradually, the earthy smell gave way to a woody smell with a hint of dirt. _Maybe this is it._ Garth followed the new scent to a freshly fallen log where a squirrel jumped out at him.

"AHHH!"

The generally uneasy feeling of the forest had caused Garth to scream when he found the squirrel so unexpectedly. He sniffed the squirrel. The squirrel, who had surprisingly never seen a wolf before, sniffed back at Garth. "Well, what do you want?" Garth asked the curious animal. Clueless, the squirrel held an acorn up to Garth. "Umm, no thanks," Garth said. "Dad! I found a squirrel!"

"What? Where? I'll be right over!" Tony called out to Garth.

As Tony approached Garth, the squirrel began sniffing suspiciously. Tony loomed over Garth and the squirrel. Although the squirrel had never seen a wolf, his natural instinct told him how dangerous they were. So when the squirrel saw a much bigger wolf behind Garth he freaked out, jumped high into the free air, and ran as fast as he could into the forest.

"Why did he run away?" Garth asked innocently.

"It's his instinct," Tony replied. "If a prey animal sees a predator animal coming towards him, his natural instinct, or voice inside his head, will tell him to either attack or get away from the scene as fast as possible."

"Oh, I see," Garth responded happy to be learning from his dad.

It took a lot of sniffing, pawing through undergrowth, and false alarms, but within twenty minutes, Garth and Tony had located a rabbit. The brown and grey creature was calmly enjoying a dandelion breakfast in an area of grass under a large cedar tree. She was completely unaware of her imminent danger.

"Okay, Garth, listen carefully," Tony whispered. "You need to get as close as possible to the rear of the animal. Once you think you can't get any closer without the animal noticing you, pounce on it and bite its neck! Got it?"

"What if it starts to run?" Garth questioned.

"Simple. Start chasing it, and I'll be right behind you with further instructions. Don't worry, your instinct will help you."

"Right. Instinct. Instinct…" Garth shut his eyes and tried to find his instinct.

Tony quietly chuckled. "Well if you want breakfast you might want to start sneaking up on it."

"Oh yeah! I'm on it!"

Garth crept up behind the tree and slowly moved around the cedar and towards the rabbit. The rabbit grabbed another mouthful of dandelions. Two feet from his savory breakfast, Garth leaped onto the rabbit and bit its neck. That rabbit never moved again.

"Wa-ho! Look at my natural instinct driven hunter of a son, Garth!" Tony announced.

Garth grinned, showing his teeth full of rabbit whatevers and fur. With the rabbit still in his mouth, Garth cheered, "I grot irt! I grot irt!"

"Hurry up! Let's go show Momma!"

"Rirrght behind dja!" Garth followed Tony carrying the rabbit in his mouth.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Note: ****Next chapter! Yay! I hope you enjoyed the other.**

Chapter Three

"Mary, darling, we're home," Tony called out as he and Garth approached their den.

Mary, who had been grooming herself, ran out to meet her boys.

"Mrom! Mrom! I craught a brabbit," Garth mumbled with rabbit still in his teeth.

"You did? Well congratulations!" Mary praised. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Yeah, Dad showed me how," Garth said going into the story of how he had made his first kill.

When Garth had finished his victorious and triumphal story, everyone took a bit of Garth's rabbit for breakfast, leaving the most for Garth, of course, because he was the one that had killed it. As they enjoyed their meal, Mary and Tony kept congratulating Garth and saying that he was well on his way to becoming a master hunter and, if he passed the acceptance test, alpha school!

Alpha school. Garth knew that this was where wolves went as pups over winter to become alphas. When they were finished with the course, they returned as "top of the class" hunters, fantastic athletes, and incredibly respected individuals. Even though it would mean leaving his family and friends, he thought it might be something worth trying for. So he asked his parents about it.

"Dad and Mom, do you think I could go to alpha school?" he asked meekly.

"Oh, well…" Mary began, but Tony interrupted her.

"Of course you can! Well, when you're older, that is." Tony wanted to discuss this big move with Mary alone later, but he continued. "To get in, you have to pass a basic skill and knowledge test. You can take it up to three times. The knowledge test is very easy for nearly all wolves, it's just a basic alpha and omega classification trivia along with some other things that every wolf should know. The skill test, however, is a lot harder and will require dedication and commitment. Very few wolves ever pass on their first try, that's why you can take it three times."

"Well, I want to go!" Garth exclaimed excitedly.

"Sure thing, when you're older," Tony replied. "But for now, we can go down tomorrow to the basic skill and knowledge test, just so you can see what it's like. By the time the next one is available, you should be ready to take it for the first time."

"And we'll see what the future brings!" Mary quickly added. "You never know, you might change your mind," she said nervously looking at Tony.

"Yeah, right," Tony responded. "But for now, I have a pack meeting to go lead. Garth, you and your mom can go do the daily territory security check. Just walk around western border so we can be sure that our friends the Westerners are doing their part of the current peace treaty. See you later this evening."

"Alright, dear," Mary said. "Come on Garth. Go and get ready for the trip."

"Okay Mom," Garth said, "I'll go take a bath."

And with that final statement Tony and Garth left the den each going their separate ways.

**Author Note: ****Don't forget to check out my profile! I've got facts and secrets about this story not available anywhere else! (Don't worry, no spoilers.)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: ****Ouch! I bring bad news! I am not sure that I will be able to get Internet access on a regular basis until the 31****st**** of May or so. So that means the updating of this story will still be regular, as promised, but it will change as far as scheduling of my updates goes. But because I'm nice, and because I want to show you all how sorry I am for this sudden disruption, I will give you THREE chapters now, and THREE chapters when I return! So, YAY! Enjoy, and use these chapters sparingly. ;-)**

Chapter Four

Garth had finished his bath, and was just arriving back in his den, where his mom waited patiently for her "bundle of fur."

"Ready for our security check?" Mary said

"I sure am, Mom," Garth happily replied. "Can I get a friend to walk with?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Yes! I wonder if Alex is available. Can we ask him?"

"Of course! He is your best friend. Let's go!"

Alex, Garth's very best friend, was trying to climb a tree outside of his parents' den. For some reason, he believed that wolves could climb trees as easily as a squirrel, if they really tried. Like Garth, he was an only child and had two parents that loved him dearly. He was a dark brown wolf possessing a pair of matching brown eyes that complimented his fur in a rather handsome way. If Garth had been older, he might have been jealous of Alex's superb looks. But he was far too young to understand such things.

As Garth and Mary approached, Alex looked over his back, with his torso pressed against a thick oak tree. "Oh, hey Garth. How's it, uff, going?" He was desperately trying to mount the trunk like a squirrel, of course.

"I'm great! My mom and I wanted you to come along with us while we check the territory borders. Wanna come?" Garth called back.

"Of course I do," he exclaimed still stubbornly trying to shinny up the large oak. "Uh, could you give me a boost? I can almost reach the lowest branch! Please friend? Best friend?"

Garth laughed, "Okay. Sure. Whatever you say." He then shoved Alex so that his front paws could grasp the first branch.

"Yes! I'm on the first branch! Haha!"

"Yeah, that's great," Garth responded awkwardly. "Are you ready to go yet?"

"Yeah, sure." Alex hopped out of the tree. "So where to first Ms. Mary?"

"We'll start with the eastern edge and work our way to the Western Pack's border. Mr. Tony wanted us to pay special attention to that area; just to make sure our friends our keeping up their end of the deal."

Mary gradually began leading the way through the territory security check. Alex and Garth tried to keep up, but they were constantly chatting and Garth liked to surprise pounce Alex. Several wolves greeted them with friendly hellos along the way, including two of Mary's good friends. The first was named Tracy. She was a white wolf with a bit of grey mixed in. After Tracy, they encountered Martha, a brown wolf and mother to Alex. She greeted her son cheerfully, but Alex was in a hurry to move on so he could spend more time with his best friend.

When they were almost through with the inspection, Mary led the boys over to the Western/Eastern border line. She warned them to be extremely cautious and to stay in their territory at all times unless they had permission from both an Eastern wolf and a Western wolf. This was necessary because the Eastern Pack leader, Winston, could be unforgiving if he found a foreigner entering without permission, although he was almost always one hundred percent kind. The pups adhered closely to Mary until the inspection had concluded.

Garth and Mary returned Alex to his mother where he would most likely again try to climb a tree.

"Thanks Ms. Mary and Garth! I had a great time," Alex said.

"You're welcome, Alex," Mary replied. "Try not to fall out of any trees."

"Ha ha! Don't worry; I'm careful," Alex responded.

Later that night, Tony arrived at the den with a large caribou. "Here's dinner," he greeted his family. "Hope it's a good one."

"Looks great, Dad!" Garth praised. "By the way, when do we go to the Alpha School test tomorrow?"

"Shortly after our breakfast," Tony answered. "Speaking of which, you won't have time for a hunting lesson tomorrow. We'll be there most of the day. It'll be a busy day, starting bright and early. You need to go to bed right after dinner."

The happy family sat down to a deliciously savory meal of freshly killed caribou. To a wolf, nothing beats that.

As Garth circled lied down onto his bed made of soft grass, he could not help but think of how wonderfully his life was going. Maybe, someday, he would meet a beautiful female Eastern Pack wolf and fall in love and have a happy family just like his parents had. That would make Tony and Mary grandparents! Garth could hardly wait until that day!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The bright sun had barely begun rising when Tony and Mary woke Garth from a good, calm sleep. They always hated to disturb Garth when he was sleeping so peacefully. However, Garth would hate getting a slow, groggy start to one of his big days.

"Garth," Mary calmly began, "wake up. It's your big day."

Yawning, Garth began to stir. "Why is it so early?"

Tony and Mary chuckled at his silly statement that he probably didn't realize he was muttering as he began to come into reality.

"Well, that's what mornings are… They're, kind of, early," Tony awkwardly replied to Garth's somewhat rhetorical question.

"You're going to watch the future alphas try to pass the Alpha School test today," Mary reminded her son.

Suddenly wide awake, Garth jumped out of bed. "Oh yeah! Come on! Come on! Let's get ready!"

"We're already ready," Tony stated. "As soon as you bathe and eat some leftover caribou, we will leave."

"Yes!" shouted Garth as he ran out of the den and towards the creek.

The creek was a thousand feet further into pack territory from the bottom of the cliff where Garth's den was located. Garth splashed into the refreshingly cool water and began to scrub himself rapidly. He was so excited that he didn't even notice all the curious squirrels and early birds staring curiously at him. After his rather speedy bath, Garth sprinted back to his parent's den.

As Garth finished inhaling a few chunks of caribou, Tony said, "Well, are you through?"

"Irr rsure ram," Garth mumbled, with a mouth full of food, of course.

"Not so fast, Garth," Mary warned. "The test isn't going to run off like a crazed stampede of caribou."

"But we gotta get there!" Garth protested as his breakfast was finished. "Let's go!" He then dashed out the door with his parents trying to keep up with their over-enthusiastic son.

When the ambitious family arrived in the Eastern Pack's valley, the wolf that Tony had placed in charge of the alpha training, Max, was setting up some sort of obstacle course. Tony approached Max and started to help out with the preparations. Mary walked over to the forest with Garth and began to gather pieces of bark for the wolves to put their paw-print on. The paw-print images would serve as a way to keep track of which wolves signed up, which of those wolves passed, and which wolves would need to take the test at the next date. As all this unfolded, Garth watched with eager anticipation.

One by one the wolves that would be testing began to arrive. There were wolves of all different sizes, shapes and colors. Garth knew his friend Alex was going to take the test today for a trial run, but he was not sure where he would be. Other than that, there was no one else there whom Garth knew by name.

Finally everything was ready. Tony called everyone to order and made sure Max was right beside him.

"Welcome to the Alpha School Admission Test, or ASAT," Tony announced. "At this time some wolves, whom I have already appointed, should be passing out pieces of bark. Each tester is to place their authentic paw-print onto the bark using the special mud and water mixture, which is also being passed around. As you probably know, these slates allow us to keep track of who is testing and how many times they have tested. When you are finished, please turn these in to Max."

Each of the wolves that were going to take the test turned in their individual bark slate. When everything was ready, Tony turned the speech over to Max, who described the uniform test. There would be a multiple choice quiz, using bark slates, of course. There would also be a very challenging obstacle course. Any wolf that wanted to get into Alpha School had to pass 95% on the knowledge test, and at least 90% on the physical test. The wolves were grouped by their names and split into separate testing parties that were led by volunteer alpha wolves. Finally the wolves began to take their turn at the tests.

Garth watched all that was taking place, completely absorbed by the thought that he would be doing this at the next opportunity. He was so absorbed that he didn't realize a young female wolf, his age or older, had sat down beside him. She turned and stared at Garth for a good two minutes before she finally spoke up.

"Hi there," she said.

Garth had not noticed the wolf. He was quite startled. "Ah! Oh. Hello."

"My name is Christina," she said, trying to strike up a conversation. "What's your name?"

"Well…" Garth stopped. He had not even taken the time to examine her. She was his exact height, and had white hair flowing all over her lightweight body. With luminous, blue eyes she studied Garth and tilted her head to the right side as she waited for an answer. Fluffy and elegant, her tail began to swish left and right left and right. She must have been…

Garth finally snapped out of his mini-trance and realized what he was doing. "Oh, my name?" Christina nodded her head. "My name is Garth. I'm Tony's son."

"You're Tony's son? That's cool! My parents are Super and Fabulous!"

Garth glared at her puzzlingly.

"Ha ha! I'm just kidding. My dad's name is Jayden, and my mom's name is Christine; it's kind of like my name. She even looks like me with the same eyes and everything!"

"Cool. So, are you taking the test today?"

"I sure am! This will be my second time. I'm so excited, because, if I pass, I can get into the late summer Alpha School! Are you here for the test too?"

"No, I'm just watching. I won't be ready until you start Alpha School."

"Aww! Too bad we can't go together."

"I know. That stinks! But we could be friends instead. Wanna do that?"

"I'd love to. We are now officially friends."

"Yeah! You should come over and play sometime. We could have all sorts of fun."

"Sounds great," Christina replied joyfully. "Uh-oh. It's my turn. Wish me luck."

"Good luck! I'll be watching you!"

Garth not only watched Christina, but he actively observed the entire test as it progressed. A good four hours passed before the test was officially done and everyone broke for lunch. Making sure that he told his new friend, Christina, good-by, Garth happily walked back to his den with his family. It had been a very busy morning.

The remainder of the day passed rather quickly. Mary was out hunting and Tony had gone to a peace meeting with the Western Pack leader. Garth had to stay home alone just for two or three hours until one of his parents returned. Garth had stayed home alone only once before, since he was still quite young. Last time he had played small games that he made up with the cave walls and small sticks that he found lying around. This time, however, he lied down to take a nap. Mary and Tony eventually got home close to the same time and the family enjoyed a calm dinner together before going to bed at a rather early hour.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Over the next several weeks, Garth continued to receive hunting lessons from his dad. Mary got to know Christina's mom, Christine, and frequently met with her so that Garth and Christina could play together. Alex, surprisingly, was able to climb most trees, with the help of some wild vines occasionally. Garth even learned how to climb a few easier trees, like pine trees, from his very ambitious friend. Slowly but surely, the early summer turned into late summer and everyone started talking about the upcoming Alpha School semester. Christina found out that she had successfully passed the test along with Alex. It was a surprise to Alex because it was his very first try. They both were accepted into the challenging course of Alpha School and were to report to the testing site at the very last week of summer and would leave from there with their instructors and classmates to go somewhere south. Garth and Christina began spending a lot of time together mostly because they knew that Christina did not have much longer until she left for Alpha School. But was that the only reason?

One day Garth and Christina were out in a large field playing a game that was a cross between tag and hide and seek. Normally, Alex and a few of the other young wolves in the pack would join them. Today, however, everyone had already made summer plans with their families. Christina and Garth were the only ones with no plans. Thus, they were in the field, carelessly playing around.

"Okay, Christina, it's your turn!" Garth yelled as he started looking for a place to hide. This was difficult in an open field. Fortunately, the grass was rather tall.

"Run and hide," Christina yelled. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…"

Garth ran around, frantically looking for a spot. He thought he had used up every spot in the field two rounds ago, but when the time came he always managed to find somewhere new.

"Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty! Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three…"

Garth decided to run straight in one direction until he found a concealed area. He ran and ran until he finally noticed a tree, with a very wide trunk, standing twenty feet high in the middle of the field. Garth dove behind the tree and whispered to himself "It'll take her YEARS to find me here!"

"Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty! Alright Garth; ready or not here I come!" Christina started to sniff the ground for Garth's scent. Once she thought she had located it, she darted off in the correct direction.

Garth cautiously peered around the light brown tree trunk and saw Christina running in a direction roughly toward his location. He quickly pulled his head back in and crouched down.

Christina knew she was getting close. She slowed down and sniffed around. Looking up, she quickly caught a glance of a red blur pulling itself behind a tree. Was it Garth?

Garth tried to breathe quietly, but he was still slightly out of breath from sprinting away from Christina. Painfully he managed to hold his breath. Suddenly, Christina appeared behind him.

"Gotcha!" Christina yelled as she tried to tag Garth.

Wasting no time, Garth ran away from his friend as quickly as he could. "You missed," he called out, laughing.

"Not so fast," Christina muttered to herself. She began to gain on Garth.

Garth could no longer see Christina, so he slowed down and crouched in the tall grass. She had disappeared.

Christina saw Garth crouch down and quietly snuck up on him. When she did not think she could possibly get closer, she leaped and tried to tag Garth's back.

Garth looked back to see if he could find Christina just as she leaped. He looked up and found her coming down on top of him. She had pinned him to the ground.

"Tagged ya," Christina said playfully.

Garth looked up at Christina. He suddenly realized how beautiful she really was. Her hair was perfect as it was casually tossed by a calm breeze. Her eyes were staring directly into his. Her lips appeared inquisitive. As she smiled at Garth, Garth remembered what he had been thinking about the other night: about how he wanted to meet a pretty female wolf one day and fall in love. Christina was pretty, and she was a female. Garth kept staring at Christina; Christina kept staring at Garth.

_Wowww…_ Garth thought. His mind and heart began racing.

_You know, I think he's… kind of… well, cute! _Christina thought as a million other things rushed through her mind.

_This is beautiful, but… wow… just… OH MY GOSH! We're supposed to be playing tag! _ Garth thought frantically. _Umm… _"Oh darn, Christina," he awkwardly began, "you caught me."

Christina was enjoying this: her looking at Garth and Garth looking at her. It was really… She snapped back to reality. "Oh! Oh… Yeah, I did." She smiled.

"Umm…" Garth needed an excuse to get away for a bit. "Well, what do you know? I think I hear my mom calling. I'll catch you later." Garth slid out from under Christina and started to walk away.

"But… I didn't hear anything." Christina said.

"Trust me, she's definitely calling. So, good-by!" Garth darted off as fast as he could.

"I guess I'll see you later," Christina called. "Good-by," she whispered sadly to herself.

**Author's Note: ****Oh oh! Looks like something's starting between these two! You'll have to wait until I return to the Internet to find out! Oh, and please please please review! I LOVE reviews, especially positive ones, so please send one even if it's just two or three words! I will be accepting anonymous reviews as far as I know. Thanks, I look forward to seeing what your thoughts are. And by the way, I have a poll open for this story. So if you don't want to write a review, please at least select a pre-typed choice on the poll. Thanks! See you soon!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: ****Guess who is back from their vacation! This person! Yeah, I took a little summer kickoff trip to New England to visit family and have some fun. I even saw some of the United States' national monuments from the airport during a layover. (Does that really count?) Nevertheless, I am still spending a few extra nights in the city I originally flew out of as an extended vacation. But for now, here are the next three chapters in Garth's Story. Enjoy!**

Chapter Seven

Garth dashed into his family's den and instantly began trying to act like nothing had happened.

"Slow down there, Garth!" Tony cautioned. "What's the big hurry?"

"Hurry?" Garth asked. "Oh, well, um, there's no hurry! Why would there be a hurry?"

"Garth, is everything okay?" Mary asked her son.

"Okay?" Garth began rapidly. "Is everything okay? Well yes, of course! I mean, no way, it's terrible! Uh, actually, ummm… I need a bath before dinner!" Garth shot out of the den and in the direction of the stream of water.

Down by the stream Garth sat down and thought about what had just occurred between him and Christina. '"I need a bath before dinner.' Yeah right. When do I ever take baths before dinner? Never! That's when. PSSSSHHHH!" Garth had no idea about what he would do. "Maybe it's a good thing that she's going to Alpha School. But then I'll miss her like crazy! She and I are even closer than I am to Alex! Well, are we? I don't know! I just don't know."

Back in the den, while Mary separated a share of a caribou into three large pieces, Tony was thinking to himself. What had gotten into Garth? It was like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown induced by a sugar overload! Tony eventually decided to talk to Mary before Garth got back from his "sudden" bath.

"Mary, what do you think has gotten into Garth?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question. Something new and strange, obviously. Since when does he take a bath before dinner?" Mary responded.

"Tell me about it." Tony said. "Really, though, what is it? What did he do today?"

"You know that. He and Christina went out to play…" Mary trailed off.

"OHHHHHHHHHHH… YEAH!" Tony was struck with realization. "He… and Christina…" He pushed his front paws together repeatedly symbolizing companionship.

"Do you really think so?"

"Well, yes, but I also think we should see if he tells us naturally. We'll watch him closely and give him a day or two."

"Sounds like a great plan," Mary agreed. "In fact, I'm quite sure that he might have seen her as a bit more than a good friend and playmate today."

Garth came in and it was very clear to his parents that he was literally forcing himself to act natural. He didn't say anything over the caribou dinner. After dinner, Garth headed straight for bed and didn't even say good night. Observing Garth as only parents can, Tony and Mary walked over to their son to tell him goodnight.

"Goodnight Garth," Tony began. "Did you have a good time with Christina today?"

"Who? Oh, her. Yeah, I, well, always do!" Garth said nervously.

"Right. So did anything, "special" happen?"

"Ummmm…" Garth stared at the wall of the cave. There was a long pause.

_Why don't you just tell them, both at the same time?_ Garth thought. _You won't be able to even breathe until you get it out. Besides, why wouldn't you?_

_ Right. Why wouldn't I? _Garth replied to his inner monologue.

"Ummm… Mom… Dad?" Garth nervously began.

"Yes?" Tony and Mary both said.

Garth tried to think of a way to get the info across to his parents. "If… Well, you know. If a boy wolf knows another wolf… a female wolf… for a while… and they play together every day… and they become best friends… but then one day when they're playing… ummm… the boy wolf sees this girl wolf in a different situation and thinks she's… pretty… could that be the start of… love?"

"Well it could be," Mary began, "but it's important to note that if it is real love then the girl wolf would feel just the same about the boy wolf."

"Okay, so if she did feel like he did…" Garth continued.

"Then I would say they have found true love." Tony finished.

"True love…" Garth whispered. "Then basically, I'm halfway there?" He asked aloud.

"Well, not you, it would be that boy wolf you described." Mary said winking over at Tony.

"Oh yeah! Right! Well what if…" Garth started, "What if that story was real! And everything in it really did happen! And what if…" Garth paused. "What if that boy wolf… was me?"

Garth looked up at his parents with inquisitive, innocent green eyes and waited for an answer. Mary and Tony looked at each other, each knowing they were right with their assumption before dinner.

"Well, then I would pay extra attention to how this girl behaves and try to guess if she was feeling the same way about me. And if I was pretty sure she did, then I would go up and ask her to be my girlfriend." Tony thought hard about what he was saying to his son.

"I would definitely do the same. But if that happened to me and I was the girl wolf," Mary began, thinking about what she was saying, "then I would try to make the boy wolf realize that I liked him, because I would want him to tell me first."

"Well, in that case…" Garth stopped. "Well, I'm tired. So I'm going to go to sleep now. Night!"

Tony gave Mary a strange look. "Garth, before you fall asleep I need to ask you two important questions."

"Umm… About what?" Garth questioned with a nervous look up at his dad.

"About that story." Tony answered. "So, did that really happen to you today?"

"Um… yes…"

"Really? Then, in that case… WHO was the girl wolf?"

Garth looked down. Glancing up at his parents while nervously grinning, Garth replied, "Chrii… Chr Christina."

"Seriously?" asked Garth's parents.

Garth nodded.

"Garth," Mary said seriously, "this is WONDERFUL! You actually think a girl is pretty! I'm so happy! And I hope she thinks the same about you! ANY girl who can think straight should think you are the kindest, sweetest and most handsome boy wolf around!" Mary's tone had proved to be quite different than what Garth had thought at first when she said his name.

"Really? That's great! Thanks guys!"

"You're welcome," Tony and Mary both said. "We're glad you told us."

As Tony and Mary walked over to their side of the den, Garth thought _Oh Christina! I hope you feel the same way about me!_ Garth was soon fast asleep, with a smile on his face and a dream of Christina swirling through his mind!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Days and weeks passed and Garth was very glad that he had informed his parents of what happened between him and Christina. Throughout all this time, Garth and Christina continued to play together. Most of the time, Alex would join them for a game of freeze tag or capture the acorn, but there were several instances where Garth found himself alone with Christina. It was these times that he treasured the most.

Finally, on one bright and sunny morning, Garth woke up and decided he had had it. He was done trying to guess if Christina loved him as he did her. Today, somehow, he was just going to toughen up and go for it. Luckily for Garth, tonight was the night of the Full-Moonlight Howl, a time when wolf couples came together and howled in harmony at the full moon. Since the full moon came only once a month, Garth imagined that attendance would be higher than the biweekly moonlight howl. It was a perfect time to get Christina alone and talk to her, especially since they probably wouldn't be howling anyway.

Garth tried to pass the day playing with Alex, but for some reason the evening just would not come. When Garth felt like the day had run its course and ended twice, he told Alex that he was going home. As Garth headed back to his den, however, he noticed that the sun had just now reached its highest point in the sky. It was only noon. The day was barely even half over. In other words, Garth had come out of one eternity only to dive headfirst into another. This could not continue.

Back in the den, Garth found his mother replenishing their beds with fresh bedding. His dad was nowhere to be seen. "Mom…" Garth began. "Umm… tonight is the Full-Moonlight Howl, right?"

"Yes, why?" Mary answered.

"Well… I was wondering," Garth continued, "if…" He stopped and then suddenly continued. "I was wondering if you and Dad are going to the Howl tonight."

"We sure are. After all, the Full-Moonlight Howl is a once a month event. Is there something you wanted to do tonight?" Mary asked suspiciously.

"Well, actually… Oh I don't know. I thought I might want to stop by and watch."

"You're welcome to accompany us."

Garth knew how annoying it could be when a couple wanted to be alone and they could not get rid of someone. He did not want to be that someone, so he quickly refused. "Oh no! I wouldn't want to be in the way! I just meant I might want to, well, kind of sit a small distance away and listen to the howling."

"That's perfectly fine. Just make sure you don't get in anyone's way."

"Thanks Mom!" Garth ran out of the den, but in reality, he had no idea where he was going.

As Garth walked around the territory, he could not stop thinking about what the evening ahead might hold. He was very excited, and yet, at the same time, he did not want to go through with it. But then again how could he continue without asking Christina? Besides, tonight was perfect. Ideal! The Moonlight Howl would be occurring so almost all the wolves in the pack would be there. The wolf pups that were too young to be outside on their own at night would be in their dens with puppy sitters. The actual chances of Garth getting interrupted with Christina were extremely low. Really, why shouldn't he ask her TONIGHT?

Garth had not realized it, but as he thought of all this he had managed to lie down. Before he knew it he was asleep, dreaming of the night to come.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: ****I really like this chapter. If you haven't reviewed any of my other chapters PLEASE tell me what you think about this one. While I'm at it, thank you SO MUCH AaOWaSaCD4ever and GrayWolf8856 for taking the time to review. You're both really good readers! Thanks! It really means A LOT to me.**

Chapter Nine

Garth slowly came out of a strange dream that he had had. It was about Christina, he knew, but other than that he could not gather any extra details. CHRISTINA! Suddenly, Garth was beyond wide awake! The evening had come and the full moon was already quite high up in the sky! It might even be close to ten p.m. Garth leaped up from the ground and ran towards Christina's den.

Christina was sitting outside of her den glancing up at the clear, deep blue night sky. Her parents were both at the Moonlight Howl and she had been left all alone. She let out a sad sigh, thinking about all the fun she was missing at the Howl. "Oh well, there's always next month," she sighed. "And yet maybe… Oh! I thought for sure Garth would come see me! Sweet Garth. But maybe he doesn't care for me like I do for him. Maybe he still just sees me as a playmate, or… just another girl wolf. I suppose that… that…" Christina began to sob. "I might have been…" A small tear slid down her face. "I hope I wasn't… wrong… about… him." Christina burst into a series of small sobs as she tried to keep herself from going into a full cry.

"Christina?" a voice called. "Are you there?"

"Whoever you are, just go away!" Christina sobbed back.

"But Christina it's me, Garth." Garth's voice came in perfectly clear now.

Christina looked up. Garth stood there with one paw lifted above the ground like he was about to take a step closer to her. "Garth? What are you doing here?" she asked trying to keep her sudden joy from showing.

"Oh me?"

Christina nodded.

"I just… came by to see if you wanted to take a sort of walk with me. You know, just stroll around… under the moonlight and listen to the harmonious music of the other wolves just enjoying each other's company." Garth did not realize it, but the further he got into his invitation the more romantic and dreamy his voice became.

Christina got the message. Garth was asking her to a private date, whether he knew it or not. "You don't know how much I'd love to," was her reply.

"Well, come on." Garth said in a light, cheerful tone.

Garth and Christina set off heading in no particular direction. They walked off towards and along the main stream that ran through the territory listening to the ripples that the clear water made as it wound its way through, over, and around smooth, grey stones. They talked about random things like what their favorite game was, how they passed the time when they were alone and got bored and what they wanted to do over the upcoming fall and winter. They both already knew what the other was like and had their personal likes and dislikes practically memorized. Gradually, they came to a small secluded spot that was under the moon and just behind the Western and Eastern Pack Howling Rock. There was a large flat stone that was lying horizontal to the ground. Garth and Christina climbed up on top of it and sat down next to each other, staring out onto the flat horizon.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?" Christina said staring into the distance with a calm smile on her face.

"Yeah," Garth replied. He then mumbled to himself, "But I can think of something prettier."

"What was that, Handso-?" Christina stopped herself. She had almost called Garth "Handsome!" She then continued. "I mean, what did you say?" Christina looked at Garth.

Garth looked over at Christina and stared back into her luminous blue eyes. He paused, thinking that he thought he had heard her start to call him "Handsome." "I umm… Nothing!"

Christina's smile started to drop. _Remember you have no proof about how he feels,_ she thought.

"Christina," Garth began.

"Garth," Christina said at the same time.

"Oh, umm… you first," Garth beckoned.

"No… you," Christina said letting her smile drop anymore.

As Garth watched Christina's sweet smile sink down even more, he decided that this was it. His heart raced and began to feel as if it would overheat and stop working, leaving him lying on the ground unconscious and in front of his love. Garth took a mostly inconspicuous breath in and tried to hide his unbelievable nervousness from Christina. "Christina, I…" he began. _Don't stop now, just GO and let it happen! _Garth internally screamed to himself. "We've been friends for a while now. And I've really been thinking… like a lot. Ever since that one day, maybe a month ago, when we were playing that game of Hide and Go Tag, I've been thinking about you. Not just like 'Hey, I wonder what Christina is doing today; maybe we can get together.' I've been finding myself obsessing over you… It's getting so strong now that I have to see you or else I become mentally unstable. I don't really know how you're going to take this, but I… I think… I KNOW that… I love you."

Christina stared at Garth. _Oh. My. Gosh! That was THE SINGLE BEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD IN MY LLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFEEEE! _She yelled inside her head. Quickly, she attempted to compose herself and tried to think of a way to tell Garth she loved him too! _Don't just leave him there, say something! But AHHH! I'll never think of something that good! He's just cute! Well, tell him that! No, that won't sound right. Give him a sort of little recount of how your feelings for him have changed since you met him! Yeah, that's it! That's what I'll do! Hmmm…_

"Garth," Christina began. "It was that single game of tag that changed the way I viewed you too. It must have been the fact that we were alone for the very first time or something like that. I'm not sure what it was. But ever since then, I've been… fantasizing about you and imagining you and I having fun together and saying cute things to each other and stuff like that. The fantasies became so frequent that I would have trouble remembering that we weren't together and that I hadn't told my feelings to you… until now. Before you came tonight, I was sitting outside of my parent's den thinking you would come. I don't know how long I sat there, but it was long enough to make me believe you weren't coming. I was so devastated that I gradually broke down and cried. That's why I told you to go away, but if I knew it was you, I never would have said that ever! And, I want you to know, if you can't already see that… that I… I love you too!"

"You do?" Garth said as his tail began to wag.

"Yes, I do!"

"Oh Christina," Garth said with his heart heating up again, "will you be my girlfriend?"

"Of course I will… Handsome!" Christina was so happy to finally be calling her long loved friend a cute name! She repeated it over and over in her head as her spirit lifted and the smile returned to her face five times as big as it was before!

Garth smiled. He was so happy that he was about to… he was… Garth was crying. "Thanks, Christina… I love you!" Garth whispered as tears came down his face and he found himself with his paws around Christina.

Christina wrapped her paws around Garth and squeezed his back, desperately trying to communicate all the love that was flowing through every blood vessel in her body.

Garth felt Christina squeezing him. He didn't care. This was the happiest moment in his life. He loved being in her arms! Slowly, so as not to startle her, he buried his nose in her back fur. He felt her do the same. Garth wasn't sure what would happen now. But he did know one thing: he had found someone who loved him.

***I was so close to making Garth go over to the side and do something like this***

watch?v=SvmluRCGv_s (Just copy what you see, paste it in the address bar, and it will be the first thing that comes up. It's a video.)

**Author's Note: ****Please review. And****about that video… There's a glimpse of what goes through my mind on random occasions. **

**:-O**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: ****Another chapter in Garth's Story, just for you.**

Chapter Ten

Garth woke up late in the morning. He had been out so late with Christina that his parents had made it home before he did. Tony and Mary were a little worried that Garth was gone for so long, but when he had finally made it back to the den, he was so tired that they put off questions to the morning. Now that the sun had already risen and Garth was awake, Mary asked Garth about last night.

"Garth," she started, "why were you out so late last night?"

Still half asleep, Garth asked, "What? When?" He paused and then let out a large yawn.

"Last night," Mary continued, "where were you?"

"Oh, yeah, about that…"

Just then Tony entered the den dragging a caribou behind him. "It's a little late, but here's breakfast," he announced.

"Well Garth just woke up so it's not too late. Thanks dear," Mary said.

"Sure thing," Tony replied. "So, um, Garth… What kept you out so long last night?"

"I was asking him the same thing, but then you came in," Mary informed.

"Mom, Dad, calm down," Garth began. "Okay, last night was really big and exciting for me, so let me tell you."

"Go ahead! We're all ears!" Tony directed.

"Okay, so last night…" Garth let out a happy sigh. Mary and Tony smiled as they started to guess what had really happened. "Last night, when you two were at the Full-Moonlight Howl, I went over to Christina's den. She was there and kind of looked sad so I invited her to take a walk with me. Eventually, we sat down on top of a walk and just enjoyed the moonlight and the howling behind us and… Oh, it was all just perfect. So…" Garth paused and smiled at his parents. "So, I told her how much I loved her and guess what she said!"

"What!" Tony and Mary both exclaimed.

"She said that she felt the same way about me!" Garth practically yelled. "So, I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said yes, of course! That was the best night ever!"

"Awww, Garth," Mary said, "I'm so happy for you!" Mary hugged her son tightly.

"That's awesome, Garth," Tony cheered. "I'm glad you were finally able to let it out and tell her the truth."

"Thanks guys," Garth said.

"Well," Tony continued the conversation, "I suppose, mister, that that was your very first date."

"That's what it sounds like to me," Mary said.

"Well," Garth said thinking aloud. "I… kinda guess it was. And I can't wait for the next one!"

"I'm sure it will come very soon. Why don't you ask her out to the next Moonlight Howl?" Tony advised. "It comes up again in fourteen days."

"Thirteen and a half now," Mary corrected. "Garth, you slept so late that the day is nearly half over!"

"It's okay, Mom," Garth stated. "I'm just… so overjoyed right now! Can I go straight over to Christina's right after I eat, well, lunch?"

"I guess so," Tony answered. "You'll need to spend a lot of time together now that you two are together."

"Thanks," Garth replied as he began to stuff himself with caribou.

Tony and Mary watched their son as he swallowed one last mouthful of caribou and ran out of the den in the direction of Christina's den. They both smiled and leaned in together as they watched him vanish as he headed down the small cliff.

"He'll be full grown and married soon," Mary said sobbing.

"Well, you can't hold him back forever. My parents always did that…" Tony comforted.

"They did?" Mary questioned.

"Shoot, yeah!" Tony interjected to Mary's surprise. "You have no idea how many times I asked to do stuff that we let Garth do all the time and they said 'No Tony, we don't want you always going out and away from us.' I moved out early…"

"Ha ha! Now I remember you telling me that when we were dating. But now you're way down here in Jasper and they're up in the Arctic Circle. They definitely were a little…" Mary made motions with her paw as she tried to think of the word. "…Out there."

"Oh yes, they were. They really were."

**Author's Note: ****Is that a… Why yes it is! It's a review button! Don't forget to use it! **

**-Humphrey Loves Kate**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: ****Well, this is officially the longest chapter I have ever typed. Of course I also think it's the cutest. So what are you waiting for? Start reading! Enjoy it! This is probably my favorite chapter so far.**

Chapter Eleven

As soon as Garth reached Christina's den, he found a black male wolf sitting outside of the den. The wolf was tall, and had dark eyes matching his shiny coat. "Good morning sir," Garth began. "Um, are you Christina's dad?"

"Yes, I am. My name is Jaden. Who are you?" the wolf responded in a kind yet stern voice.

"I'm Christina's friend, Garth!" Garth answered cheerfully. "Well, actually, I guess I'm her new boyfriend. Is that okay?"

"From all the descriptions Christina has given me and her mom of you, it's more than okay. I'm glad that you have finally told her that you loved her."

"Thank you, sir. So, is Christina home?"

"Of course, I'll send her right out."

Garth waited for Christina's dad, Jayden, to return. A few minutes later, however, Christina came running up to Garth and pounced on him. Together, they rolled halfway down a small, grassy hill located just outside of the den. They landed side by side. Christina's arms were wrapped around a surprised Garth.

"Good morning, Handsome," Christina greeted.

"Uhh… Hi." Garth said partially blushing. His reddish brown fur was good at hiding this. Garth thanked his bloodline.

"Ha ha! I love you," Christina continued. "So, whatcha wanna do today?"

"I don't know," Garth said staring into her eyes. "But if whatever we do, if we do it together, it won't matter." Garth smiled at Christina, and she smiled at him.

"Well, whatever it is, it had better be good. I leave for Alpha School the day after tomorrow."

_Shoot!_ Garth exclaimed mentally. _And I was going to ask her to the next Moonlight Howl! Maybe everything is not so perfect…_

Christina noticed Garth's pause. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh? OH! It's just that you're leaving… and I'm one stupid semester behind." Garth looked away with a sad expression on his face.

"You know what?" Christina asked.

Garth shook his head. "What?"

"My dad said that no matter what the conditions are, if your love is meant to be, things will just workout; either one way or another."

"I sure hope he's right," Garth said.

"I'm pretty sure he is."

"Christina," Garth began, "do you think our love is meant to be?"

"I can feel it flowing from my heart to every blood vessel in my body!" Christina said with the most passionate voice Garth had ever heard.

"And that's one of the reasons why I love you." Garth looked at Christina with big, tender eyes.

"Dang! You're so sweet!"

Garth simply smiled. Before he knew it, he and Christina were snuggled close together like two little puppies staring up at the gentle and fluffy white clouds. A moderate breeze began to pick up and playfully tossed their fur. The trees swayed moderately and the leaves rustled back and forth. Garth and Christina let out a long sigh of content.

"Everything sure is perfect around you," Garth stated calmly.

"Me? No way! You're the one that makes everything perfect," Christina said.

Garth looked over at Christina. _She's such an adorable angel, _he thought. "Christina, wanna play a game?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, sure. Anything with you. What game do you want to play?"

"Oh I don't know."

"Hey, I've got an idea. Let's have a staring contest. But instead of being awkward and creepy we can just enjoy each other's eyes."

Garth wasn't so sure about this for some unknown reason. "Well, okay. Let's give it a try."

Christina rolled over and faced Garth. Garth faced Christina.

"Okay, close your eyes…" Christina started. "Now when I say 'Go,' we both open them and look into the other's eyes for as long as we can. And… GO!"

The young couple stared into each other's eyes.

"So tell me Garth, do you, see anything?" Christina asked in a silly tone.

"Nothing more than the most beautiful blue eyes ever." Garth kept his stare. "But tell me, Christina, are you, happy?"

"Well that all depends on what I'm… 'happy' about."

"Are you sure about that?" Garth said in a weird high pitched voice.

"Well so much for not being awkward and creepy," Christina smirked keeping her eyes open constantly.

"Dang it! We are being awkward. Wanna do something else?" Garth held is eyes open despite the growing dryness feeling.

"What's the matter? Can't keep your eyes open long enough?" Christina playfully teased. The truth was, her eyes were really tired as well.

"No, it's probably just you standing here being so pretty and all, and my ugly old eyes can't take it!" Garth frowned.

Christina would not have her boyfriend talking down on herself. Without hesitating she broke the contest and pounced at Garth. The two wolf pups rolled down the remainder of the grassy hill. Garth landed on top of Christina.

"Garth!" Christina exclaimed up at Garth. "You are the most handsome wolf in this entire pack! Don't you ever call yourself ugly! It… It crushes my heart." Christina looked over to the side and looked as if she was beginning to weep.

"Christina…" Garth rolled off and to the side of her. "That was the single best thing I've heard all day." Garth rubbed his cheek against Christine's and they buried their noses in each other's fur as they had done the night before.

"Garth… I'm sorry I yelled," Christina said, "but I can't let you beat yourself up."

"Thanks for stopping me," Garth replied. "I…"

"You what?"

"I love you like crazy!"

"You know Garth, I think my dad was right."

"He was?"

"I think our love is going to work itself out."

"It had better!" Garth's tone and mood began to become more playful. "Cause I would sure be one disappointed person if it didn't!"

"Ha ha! Me too."

"Wanna go for a walk? We could play another game, like Twenty Questions or Truth or Dare."

Christina leaped up. "Let's go."

Side by side as they had so longed to be, Christina and Garth walked in the direction of the woods. They were not going to go in but they did think it would be nice to look into the forest and imagine what might be in there. Before long, however, they had a game of Truth or Dare going. Christina had the first question.

"Okay, truth or dare, Garth?" she asked.

"Hmmm," Garth contemplated his decision. "Let's take a… dare!"

"Okay. Run into the forest as far as you can for thirty seconds and then run back."

"Uhhh… NO WAY!" Garth exclaimed.

"Gaaaarrrrrrth," Christina playfully reminded, "you will be forcing me to present you with a harder dare."

"PSSSHHH! Nothing could ever be harder than that!"

Christina smirked. "Run into the forest as far as you can for forty-five seconds and then run back."

"Dang it!" Garth turned towards the forest and darted off. Christina sat down and waited for his return.

A minute and a half later, Garth returned panting. He leaped into the air and slid on his left side. He made sure that he was facing Christina and had his head propped up on one paw. "Was it… good enough for you?"

"Unbelievable!" Christina explained, swiping her paw horizontally across the air.

"Ha ha!" Garth chuckled. "Now let me ask you." Garth got up off the ground at this point and the two pups continued walking. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Okay." Garth thought hard on his question. He smiled as one came to him. "Have you ever had a boyfriend?"

"One."

Garth was surprised. He unknowingly gulped. "Who?"

"Oh what was his name,"Christina teased. "It was you, silly!"

"Oh yeah," Garth sighed with relief. "Right."

"Truth or dare, Garth."

"Truth. I don't need another dare like that one yet!"

"Mmkay. Have you ever had a girlfriend besides me?"

"YAY! An easy one! No, I have not!"

_Good! _Christina thought.

"Alright. Truth or dare, Christina?"

"I guess it's only fair I have my chance at a dare." Christina sighed. "Throw one at me."

"Alright, let's see. Hmm." Garth halted the walking pace by sitting down. He stood up and they continued to walk. "Alrighty then, go and eat five LARGE bitter berries!"

"What the? Garth! You know how much I think those things are NAAAASSSTY!"

"Sorry girly, it's payback for the forest."

"Darn it!"

Christina walked into the brush just outside of the forest and found a bitter berry bush. The light blue berries, which resembled blueberries in shape, looked entirely ominous and completely evil. Christina painfully grabbed five of the terrible berries and ate her first.

"EWWWW!" she yelled as she crinkled her nose and barely managed to choke the wretched thing down.

"Sorry sweet darling, four more." Garth teased.

Christina shoved the remainder of the berries into her mouth one by one with a significant amount of disgust, displeasure, and disdain.

"Well, now what?" Garth asked.

With blue bitter berry stains on her white face and cheeks, Christina replied, "Now, you're gonna get it!"

Christina began to chase Garth around the little area that they were in. Garth ran frantically away from her.

"What are you gonna do when you catch me?" Garth asked as he looked back at Christina.

"Still kinda working on that one," Christina yelled ahead as she began to close in on Garth.

"Oh no! You're getting closer!"

"Almost… Gotcha!" Christina leaped at one of Garth's hind legs and just barely missed. "'Almost,' I said."

Fortunately Garth was able to get some extra time as Christina pulled herself off of the ground. He saw that he was getting further away from her. As they both ran around, the attention of other wolves who had previously been minding their own business was drawn onto them.

"Why are you still running?" Christina asked.

"You'd be doing the same if it was me chasing you!" Garth called back.

Before he realized it Garth was splashing into the stream which ran through the territory and realized he was caught. Christina jumped up onto him and they both plunged into the water. The water was not too deep, but the further towards the center that they got the deeper the stream became. In just a few seconds, they were completely under water with enough room to finish their playful little scuffle. Garth pushed a portion of the current toward Christina; Christina shoved some underwater vegetation back at Garth. They both smiled at each other under the water before quickly heading back up to the surface.

Treading a small amount of water, Garth said, "That was really fun!"

"Really?" Christina said giving Garth another one of her smirks. "Who ever said it was over?" She then playfully splashed water onto him.

"Okay, girl, you asked for it." Garth pushed all the water he could so that it covered him and Christina with a big 'sploshing' sound. They both continued to do things like this before Garth said, "Okay. I think we've had enough."

"I agree," Christina said as she panted and gasped for air.

Together they walked out of the stream and shook themselves dry. They had been having so much fun that Garth barely realized that the sun had gone down and the moon had come up. They both lied down to gaze at the beautiful stars visible in the sky. The light breeze that was blowing earlier continued.

"Well Christina, I sure did have fun today. We have to see each other again tomorrow!"

"Oh yes! Dang it! Tomorrow's the last day before I leave for Alpha School! Why must life be against me?" she yelled out comically.

"Ha ha! Christina, life isn't against you. If it was, we wouldn't have had so much fun today," Garth reassured her.

"I know. I was just kidding. Anyway, I will see you tomorrow. And I think that my parents might be doing some sort of going away party slash come say bye to me in the evening deal. I don't know. I just kinda heard them saying something about it.

"Well then, little eavesdropper, am I invited?" Garth teased.

"Oh yeah! You should be the honored guest!"

"We can always arrange for that!"

"No! SHHH! My parents don't know that I know that they are doing this."

"That was a tongue twister."

"Tell me about it."

Garth sighed. "Well Christina, I really love being with you, but I think my parents might be a little upset with me for staying out so long without checking in. So I think it's best that I head home."

"Ohh, probably," Christina sighed back. "My parents will probably go nuts when I walk in. I'll try and sneak past them, but I can't give promises."

"Tell them I didn't mean to be out this late, if they ask about me."

"Sure thing, Handsome." Christina got up to leave. "Good night."

Garth ran up to hug her. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too, darling."

Garth headed back to his den to get some sleep with a smile on his face. In his den, he found his parents asleep, so he slunk in as quietly as he could. "Dang!" he whispered. "I sure hope I'm not in any kind of trouble." Before long, happy thoughts of him and Christina playing together began to circle his mind and Garth found himself fast asleep with another happy dream in his mind. It was about him and Christina, of course.

**Author's Note: ****And with that, you have just finished reading the longest chapter I have ever written. Why don't you leave a review? I think you should. By the way, thank you SO MUCH to those that have been reviewing EVERY UPDATE since they started reading. You all are great!**

**XD and **


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: ****Just**** another chapter in Garth's Story. Have fun reading! I had fun typing it.**

Chapter Twelve

When the morning came, Garth was woken up by his parents. They were not too happy about him staying out late… again! And it was the second night in a row!

"Okay Garth, wake up and tell us what you were doing _last night_," Tony said sternly.

"Good morning Mom and Dad," Garth said dreamily. "Oh yeah, last night I… EWW!" Garth said as he saw the very unhappy looks worn by his parents. "I, um, guess I was out too late again, huh?"

"You got it! The first time it was excusable, but you can't keep going on like this!" Mary was just as stern as Tony. "So what were you doing last night?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Mom and Dad," Garth said. "It's just that Christina and I were having so much fun together. We played games and we chased each other and…"

"Look, Garth," Tony began, "we're both glad that you are able to spend time with your girlfriend. But if you're going to have a girlfriend you have to remember that there's more in your life right now than just going out and spending time with her. It's great that you're doing that, but you have to remember that you will be having more responsibilities here at home as you get older. Before long, you'll be taking turns with me to hunt our meals."

"That's right," Mary agreed. "Now I know this is not the best thing to do as your parents, Garth, so you better know that this is just because we're super nice. Anyway, tonight is the last night before all the wolves that passed the Alpha School test leave for Alpha School. There's a going away reception that we along with a few of the other wolves' parents are putting together. Christina will be there and we're going to allow you to stay out late with her and the other wolves. But you have to show yourself worthy for this privilege today by helping us out with anything we ask you to." Mary looked at Tony with a look that said _We're terrible parents…_

"So, do you think you can do that?" Tony asked with growing enthusiasm.

"You bet I can!" Garth replied cheerfully. "And don't worry, I'll be as helpful as I can; starting by helping Dad catch breakfast!"

The remainder of the morning was, as far as Garth was now concerned, rather dull. Tony and Garth did manage to catch another caribou for themselves and Mary early in the day. In the afternoon, however, Garth's parents were chief executives for setting up a little area for the wolves that would be going into Alpha School. Garth helped out as much as he could, but he often found himself staring into space with a daydream of Christina in his mind. These daydreams were quickly disposed of, as Garth did not want to gain more disdain from his parents, especially in front of all the other wolves that composed the setup crew! Eventually, a small rock was adorned with flowers, dark green leaves and tree bark slates with the names of the wolves that would be going into Alpha School on them. This completed the setup and Garth was finally released from his duties.

_Man! I gotta get more used to work and responsibilities if I ever plan on being an alpha!_ Garth thought to himself. _Maybe it'll be easier as Christina and I get closer and more accustomed to each other…_

After another hour of doing nothing passed slowly by, Garth found himself in the early evening. It was just about time for the reception! Garth could not wait! He was a bit sad, however, because this would be the last night that he saw Christina before she returned from Alpha School. "What will I do when she's gone?" Garth sadly asked himself. "I just don't know… I just don't know."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Yet another eternity passed before Garth's eyes before the time for the reception had finally come. Once the time had come, however, Garth wasn't really sure where he should go or what he should do. He casually strolled around the area as other wolves gathered into the previously decorated grounds. Garth decided to find his parents and see what they wanted him to do.

Tony and Mary were both very busy lining the future alphas up in a line. They were also giving them instructions. Garth politely interrupted.

"Dad," he began.

"Not now Garth. I'll get to you in a second," Tony said without even glancing at his son.

"Mom," Garth tried.

"Garth, I'm a little busy now," Mary responded. She also did not glance at her son. "Is it important?"

"I just wanted to know if there was anywhere specific that I am supposed to be. I don't know where to go," Garth informed his mom.

"I don't care," Mary replied in a frantic and overly busy voice. "Go find some friend to sit with or something."

Garth had really never seen his parents acting like this so he was a little upset. "Okay," he mumbled to himself.

Scanning the growing crowd, Garth looked for a place to sit. Both of his friends, Christina and Alex, were in the ceremony anyway so Garth really would not have anyone to sit with. When he was tired of looking and wandering aimlessly, Garth sat down towards the front of the gathering and faced the previously decorated rock that the students would most likely be assembling on. Garth sighed. _Gee, I better get used to this,_ Garth thought to himself._ Alex and Christina will both be gone. Seriously, why didn't I take that stupid test? I might have passed and I'd be going off with them both. But no! When I finally get my chance, there won't be anyone there I know. It will just be me, myself, and… and I. _Garth thought about all this and let out another sigh.

Finally the time had come for the ceremony to start. Tony ran up onto the rock, or stage as it was being used now, and gave a welcome speech. He also introduced the first student and invited him to take the stage and say a thing or two. This procedure was repeated for seven or eight wolves before it was Alex's turn. After him and last in the show, Christina took the stage.

"Um, hi everyone," Christina nervously began. "I guess I'm the last one, so I had better think of something good to say." The crowd laughed at this line. "Anyway, I want to thank Tony and Mary and all the other wolves that chipped a paw in to help make this event possible. It really does mean a lot to us future alphas and we will definitely remember this for a very long time if not forever. I really am excited about going to Alpha School and returning as a fully trained alpha and wish that everyone here was able to pass the test at some point in their life. I really don't know what to say… Well, thank you, I guess, to my parents. They did help me get ready for this day. My dad even taught me a few basic techniques and maneuvers all of which I did need to pass the physical test. My mom, well, she taught me just about everything I know about hunting and how other animals think. I used all that stuff on the knowledge test. But there is one other wolf who really has not been getting as much credit as he should have. He is an awesome person and is so kind to me, my family, and everyone he knows. That wolf is Garth, my boyfriend. Come on up here Garth."

As the crowd watched him, Garth slowly walked onto the stage. He strolled up to Christina and sat down right next to her. With a large, nervous smile on his face, he waved at the audience.

"If any of you out there don't know Garth," Christina began, "you are missing out on knowing one of the best wolves in this entire pack. Scratch that: the world! Thanks Garth for being my friend, for supporting me, and thanks most of all, for being able to let me go on into Alpha School even though you're not ready yet and can't come with me."

Garth's inner emotions dropped when Christina reminded him that he wasn't going. He could not bear to think of Christina going off without him while he stayed behind with nothing to do but chase his tail, eat and sleep. At the same time, however, he did feel loved. All of this was beginning to pile up on him. Glancing out into the audience, Garth tried to keep himself composed until Christina finished her little impromptu speech. He was losing it, however. His heart felt like it was about to shut down and die.

"The fact that you will let me go really means a lot to me. I know that while I am gone, you will fill in for me with whatever it is that I contribute to this pack. Thanks everyone, and I love you, Garth."

Garth tried to look out and smile back at the audience. After three seconds however, he could no longer bear it. He found his head in buried in Christina's shoulder fur as the lukewarm tears began to slide out of his eyes and down his dry cheeks. Christina looked mildly embarrassed, but she turned towards Garth and hugged him back. Garth's sniffling was just beginning to reach audible levels when Christina kindly told Garth to compose himself because he was on stage. Painfully, Garth stopped the tears and sniffles and smiled back at the audience with a somewhat wet face. The crowd let out a large "Awwww" when they saw this scene. Garth and Christina exited the stage and walked over to the side where they sat down alone.

"Garth," Christina said, "I have to go finish this. Meet me out by the stream in ten minutes." Christina walked over to be with the other wolf students of Alpha School.

"Okay," Garth whispered as she walked away. "H-H-Have fun," he barely managed to choke out."

Christina turned her head back to look at Garth. She smiled.

**Author's Note: ****Okay guys, here's the deal. I know more people are reading this besides Victory 4.0.3 and AaOWaSaCD4ever and now SilentOmegaWolf (Big smiley face for you! Thanks for joining!) but from the reviews that is not obvious. So those of you who have been reading from the beginning but not reviewing, would you please start leaving a review? You don't have to every time I update, just maybe a comment on something that stood out once and a while. I am still new to this site and it would be nice to know how I'm doing from more of the frequent users. Thanks, and I hope you understand what I am attempting to say.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: ****Forewarning! This is kind of a sad chapter. So let me know if you cried or wanted to cry, or if it wasn't really that sad or whatever you do feel, I guess. Thanks**

Chapter Fourteen

The reception for the future students of Alpha School was finally over and all the students had been receiving congratulations, compliments and wishes of good luck from their friends and family for the upcoming semester. Among all of this, Garth had strolled to and from congratulating Alex and Christina. To speed up time, he congratulated a few other random wolves that looked like they needed a bit more praise for their already glorious achievement. When Garth felt that the action was almost over with the evening, he approached his parents and informed them that he would be with Christina for a bit and that they would be meeting at the stream. Casually, Garth left the reception and wandered to the stream.

The water of the stream was clear and running smoothly, bubbling as usual. An image of the waning moon was present in the constantly rippling and trickling water. In the stream, the water seemed to play with itself and the images that it reflected. Here it would start to swirl; and over there it would zig zag through the rocks and stones. Occasionally, a maple leaf would float swiftly by. Everything that the stream did added to Garth's rather peaceful mood.

Garth stared at the water and the reflections housed in it until he heard a rustling and the approaching footsteps of another wolf. Christina emerged. She walked up next to Garth and sat beside him. Enchanted, she too stared at the water.

"Hey," she casually greeted him.

"Hi," Garth replied. He wasn't sure what to say to her, so he decided on something rather cliché. "Congratulations on that impromptu speech."

"Oh yeah, that. It was really nothing," she returned.

"Well, I was glad you pulled me up there. It made me feel kinda… loved."

"You are loved, Garth. I was just trying to make sure that others knew how special you are."

Garth turned and looked at Christina. Until now, they had both been staring at the water, enchanted by its actions. "Well… Thanks. It really means a lot to me."

"You know, I could tell. It was really cute how you kept trying to keep a plastic smile on and no matter how hard you tried not to, you broke down at the end. I don't think I should have been embarrassed like I was for that. You couldn't tell I was, could you?"

"I had my face in your fur. All I could see was a white patch," Garth replied. He was neutral on her being embarrassed because of what he did.

"Oh, okay then. I'm… I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Christina sighed. "I'm a terrible person for being embarrassed because of my own boyfriend whom I love dearly! That's what." Christina began to sob. Sliding down her face, Christina's tears fell one by one into the flowing stream.

"It's okay, Christina. I shouldn't have just broken down like that in your speech anyway."

"No! No Garth. You have a right to show your emotions! I'm the terrible one here! You should just break up with me and go find some other girlfriend." Christina was now fully crying. Truly, she was feeling terrible: like some worthless little being that no one even would ever bother to care about.

Now Garth felt bad. He did partially believe that this was his fault. It was his responsibility to be able to contain himself, he thought. Yet again unsure of what to do, Garth put his arm around Christina, although he really could not stand seeing his angel cry.

"Garth… Oh Garth." Turning to her boyfriend, Christina returned the hug. "Does this mean we're okay?"

"Christina, we're more than okay. Please stop crying, you're breaking my heart. I don't like seeing you so down on yourself and sad like this."

Slowly stopping her tears, Christina said, "Garth… I don't know what I'll do without you. Can you come to Alpha School with me?"

"I want to so badly! But that stupid test thing! They'll never let me in."

"Your parents are the pack leaders. Couldn't they tweak the system?"

"They wouldn't do it. They believe in fair shots for everyone. Honestly, I don't believe they'd even consider it."

"Then I guess this is it, then. Just me and you, sitting by this little stream, trying to grab our last few minutes together before we separate." Christina sighed. "Some rules that we follow are just plain stupid!"

"Tell me about it," Garth replied. "I mean, I know both of us will probably become alphas, but I don't think some of the rights we have should be restricted actions for the omegas."

"Oh my gosh, I know!" Christina's mood was shifting from sad to excited and angry. "If I got to be an alpha, and for some weird reason, you didn't, I would be so mad!"

"Or if it was the other way around, I'd have to hurt someone!" Garth was becoming enraged.

"What would you do?" Christina wanted to know.

"One of two things: I'd fight till we changed things, or move away!"

"And take me with you!"

"Oh, of course."

There was a slow pause between the two. Garth restarted the conversation.

"Nevertheless, I will miss you. I'll think about you every day. If there's ever something that's really hard or extremely challenging, **I'll think about you, cause you give me the strength to keep going.**"

Christina could not help but smile here. Garth really was overly cute. There were sometimes when she thought she would die from his cuteness. "I'll remember that," she replied, "every word of it."

"I don't doubt you will," Garth said.

Suddenly, Garth found himself staring into Christina's blue eyes. Christina stared right back into Garth's large eyes. The two wolf pups leaned in to each other. They were close enough to strongly smell each other's scents. Christina smelled a lot like some sort of flower that Garth could not name. Garth had a sweet, rugged and cute smell to him. Garth and Christina's noses were almost touching. They were two eternal centimeters away from each other. For an unknown reason, the two wolves stopped. There was a rustling in the nearby bushes.

"There you two are," an adult female wolf said. As she came closer, the two wolves saw that it was Christina's mom, Christine.

"Oh, hi Mom," Christina casually greeted. "Um, what are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" she returned the question. "You never told us where you were going."

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, Mom, but…"

"No. It's time to come home. You leave VERY early for Alpha School tomorrow and you should have been in an hour ago. Come on." Christine started to walk away clearly expecting Christina to follow her.

"I have to…" Christina began to explain.

"No, it's okay. I understand." Garth was trying to act as mature as possible. "You have a responsibility. Is this good-by?"

"As much as I hate to say it, I'm afraid so. Garth, I don't want to leave. Why can't Alpha School just be on this territory? Why do we have to go somewhere else? Stupid laws!" Christina was mad at first, but she gradually became sadder.

"Well, you go have fun! And the next time I see you, you had better be an alpha!" Attempting to encourage her, Garth was trying to act like he was happy.

"I-I-I'll do my… my best."

"I know you will. Good-by Christina. I'll miss you."

"Good-by Garth." Christina paused. She was clearly fighting a breakdown. "I'll miss you too."

The two wolves leaned into a long hug as tears of sadness began to escape their eyes. Each one of them was hugging the other so tightly that they could feel the other's heart beating rapidly. Neither of them ever wanted this to end, but the stern voice of Christine called Christina away, ending the heartfelt moment in either of their lives. Christina walked towards her mom and they both left Garth sitting alone beside the stream.

Garth watched as his only love in the world walked away. He knew it would be a long time before he ever saw her again. Tears began to pour down Garth's sad face. Silently, Garth wept for his loss. If Garth survived this tough time he was about to endure, he did not know how he would be when he got out of it. "I wish we had had more time together," he sobbed.

**Author's Note: ****It wouldn't be a bad idea to listen to "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars now that you've finished this chapter. You could also listen to it and read the story again, from the part where it says "…could not stand seeing his angel cry." Just a suggestion. Please review.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: ****You might call this a filler. Enjoy anyway.**

Chapter Fifteen

Weeks… Months… A whole season passed where Garth was without Christina. It did not help that Alex, his best friend, was gone with her. As the late summer sluggishly dropped into late fall, Garth grew very lonely. Trying to cheer him up, Tony and Mary suggested that Garth try to find new friends. Garth tried this and it worked... for a small amount of time. Eventually, the friendships he had tried to establish diminished down to companionships and finally the low level of acquaintances. It did not matter what he tried; everything Garth did brought back the memory of Christina. Garth tried to occupy himself with his small yet loving family, but they just did not fill in the vast and nearly bottomless hole in his heart. Finally, on one day, Tony decided that he would begin training Garth for the Alpha School Admission Test (ASAT) so that he could have the best possible chance for passing on his first try and thus speeding up his journey to becoming a full alpha. Garth accepted Tony's help hoping that he might be able to use his knowledge soon to earn some more time with Christina.

The weather outside was very chilly, cloudy, and rainy on most days. Garth thought that it really did resemble the emotional rainstorm pouring in his feeble and waning heart. As much as he tried to hide it, Garth was growing deeply depressed. The once cheerful bundle of fur that Tony and Mary had called their son began to lose its cheer as fall progressed. Garth hated being depressed and cold, but he could not help it.

Garth's mood was not the only thing that had been changing about him. Over the past month or two, Garth had gained a significant amount of stature and a deeper voice. He was now very tall and lightly built. In just a few more weeks he could be as tall as his dad Tony! However, Garth was still very skinny. Mary was worried that Garth was underweight and not eating enough food due to his depression. Tony agreed to some extent but he believed that it was mainly because he had not had the opportunity to build as much muscle as he needed. Either way, Garth was a tall and thin wolf who would be a full grown adult about the same time he became a full alpha.

Just before it was time for the Alpha School students to return, another ASAT was organized and held. With Tony's help, Garth was able to take the test and pass it with an average of ninety-nine percent score! This did cheer Garth to some extent. But then again, he realized that this would cause him to leave for Alpha School shortly after his long lost love Christina would be returning. Garth cried himself to sleep the night after the ASAT because of this tragic news.

"Sometimes," Garth said to himself as he sobbed, "I wonder if the world is against me. It really does seem like it is."

**Don't forget to review!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: ****Oh look! It's a happier chapter, typed just for you!**

**Update Note: ****So apparently, when I updated, the archive took the story as not being updated since yesterday. Kinda weird, but I'm two hours ahead of official FanFiction time. Because of this, I am resubmitting this chapter so that readers who are not receiving alerts for this can see that this story has been updated since yesterday. I apologize for those of you that will receive two update alerts due to this minor issue****. ****Enjoy anyway! **

Chapter Sixteen

Finally, one sunny and cold day Garth was woken up by his parents. Mary and Tony were bringing him very good news: today was the day that the alphas came back! Later in the evening, there would be a graduation ceremony similar to the new student ceremony given at the beginning of the semester. The eternity was over. Garth was almost out of the interminable abyss he had been wandering around ever since the Alpha School students departed! Throughout the rather short day, Garth's spirits were on a constant rise.

Since Garth knew there was no way that he could possibly see Christina before the ceremony tonight, he kept himself as busy as possible. There were a lot of preparations that needed to be made before the actual ceremony began and Garth made sure that he helped with as many as he could. After all, he wanted to make sure everything was perfect for the return of his even more perfect girlfriend. Garth helped redecorate the ceremonial rock used earlier in the year and made a gargantuan sign out of a bark slate for Christina that read "Congratulations, Christina! I LOVE YOU!" across it. Using flowers that he found growing wildly around the territory, Garth made Christina a beautiful flower lei that he knew would make her look gorgeous under the late evening moonlight. Tonight, everything would be perfect again.

The day turned into late afternoon, and the late afternoon finally waned into mid-evening. It was at this time that Garth would be reunited with his love. The ceremony was seconds from beginning, so Garth found a seat where he could see his stupendous little angel. With a word from Tony, the pack leader, and Max, the head alpha trainer, the ceremony began.

One by one the wolves crossed the ceremonial rock and were presented by Max to Tony to be named and recorded as alphas. Garth tried to occupy himself with the other wolves, but Christina always came to him again. He had been searching for her ever since the ceremony began. For some reason, he could not locate her no matter how hard he searched. Alex was not visible either. Neither of them was seen until they appeared on the stage to be named alphas.

Alex came on first. As he walked across the beautifully decorated stage, Alex's parents cheered him on. Garth joined in, but he saved most of his voice for Christina. Alex stood up in front of Max, who presented him to Tony, bowed his head, and received the title of alpha. He really did look pleased with his achievement. When Alex was finished, he walked over to the side of the stage, opposite that of which he had entered on, and sat down next to the other graduates.

"Christina," a wolf who was serving as announcer said.

The time had come. Garth watched as his lovely girl walked across the stage to Max. Yelling as loudly as possible, Garth said "Woo hoooooo! Go Christina! I LOVE YOU!" Christina simply looked at Garth and smiled. She was clearly very happy to be graduating and did not want to miss this moment. With pleasure Tony named her an alpha and she joined the rest of the wolves.

Now that Garth could stare at Christina, the rest of the ceremony flew by. Christina, like Garth, had changed over the past few months. She too was taller, though not as tall as Garth, and was very slender. Overall, she looked very much like a grown-up she wolf. Her eyes and fur color were the only things that had not changed about her. Slightly deeper and a lot more majestic, Christina's voice had undergone a few changes as well. She looked out at Garth and winked at him. Garth really was all googley eyes for her. She just seemed so perfect to Garth.

After the ceremony ended, Garth ran up to Christina to personally congratulate her. When he got to where she had been seated, however, he could not find her. She had vanished. Garth assumed she was with her parents receiving compliments and other good praises for them, so he sat down outside of the mass crowd and waited for her. Suddenly, he saw her out of the corner of his eye. She was telling him to follow her to the stream, one of their favorite places to be together. Garth ran after her.

At the always peaceful stream, Garth was able to finally meet up with Christina. He was unbelievably happy, and his heart felt so peaceful and relieved now that he could finally be reunited with the one he loved. Without thinking, Garth darted at Christina and caught her in a long hug. "I missed you… so much," he said in a sad and lovesick voice.

"Oh Garth," Christina replied, "you always were good to me."

"Christina, please don't ever, ever, EVER, leave me for so long EVER again! I love you." Garth told Christina still holding her in a hug. He knew it would be impossible, but Garth was trying to make up for the hugs he had not been able to get from her while she was away.

"I had a great time at Alpha School," she said suddenly.

"Oh of course I'm proud of you for going and all, but I still missed you."

"I knew you would, Garth," Christina said. She turned sadly away with no smile on her face. She seemed to be thinking.

"Is something wrong, darling?" Garth asked. Nothing should ever be wrong with his perfect love!

"No, I mean… it's just…" Christina sighed. "I don't know, maybe I was gone at Alpha School too long." Biting her lip, Christina looked nervously away from Garth.

"Of course Alpha School lasted longer than we needed to be apart! But what's bothering you?"

"I… I… I don't, well… I don't know. Yeah, I just don't know." Christina looked at Garth and tried to smile.

"I understand… I think. Was Alpha School hard?" Garth asked trying to make small talk.

"Well, yeah, I mean…" Christina stopped. Why was she so nervous? What really happened at Alpha School?

_She seems really messed up. It had to have been Alpha School, _Garth thought. _Is there anything that could cheer… That's it! The moonlight howl is tomorrow night! I completely forgot! YES! We can finally have our first howl together! Oh it's perfect!_

"Christina," Garth said. "Would you be my date for the Moonlight howl tomorrow night?"

Christina looked straight at Garth, but she seemed to be avoiding eye contact. "Well… I guess… I could go with you."

"YES!" Garth accidentally said aloud. "Oh, a ha. Ha, I mean, thanks!"

"So yeah, you know, I'll see you tomorrow night." Christina began walking away.

"Wait," Garth yelled after her. He then ran up to hug her. "I'll see you later then. You go get a good night's rest, Ms. Alpha."

"Thanks, I will," Christina said. "And let's meet outside my den tomorrow night." She then hurried off in the direction of her den leaving Garth watching her walk away.

"Wow," Garth whispered to himself. "I love her, but Alpha School sure did change her." With that, Garth headed off in the direction of his den to get a finally peaceful night's sleep. Tonight, there would be no waking up from a happy dream of Christina only to realize she was no longer around. Tonight, Garth would sleep well.

**Author's Note: ****The next update will be two chapters long because I believe that both chapters must be seen together. However, because of the method in which I type and update I will have to skip a day in posting. This means that there will either be two chapters tomorrow and no chapters until Sunday or that there will not be chapters at all until Saturday before updates become regulated again. Please send me a PM informing me of when you would like to see the update and I will go with the majority selection. Just say something as simple as "Friday" or "Saturday" if you're pressed for time. Thanks!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: ****I got one vote, so that's what I'm going with. Here it goes.**

Chapter Seventeen

Since his mind had been full of overjoyed thoughts about Christina, Garth had slept very well. He woke up in the morning at a time that was neither too early nor too late. It was probably somewhere around ten in the morning. Although this was the night of the Moonlight Howl and he was very excited, Garth found the day flying by at an alarming rate. This was probably because his excitement was so high that he was losing his ability to keep track of time. Nevertheless, the evening did finally arrive, and Garth made sure that he was completely ready for his much anticipated date with Christina.

Garth set out for Christina's den. She was supposed to meet him there and together they would leave for the moonlight howl. When Garth arrived at Christina's den, however, she was nowhere to be found. Naturally, Garth asked Jaden and Christine if they knew where she had gone.

"Excuse me, but where's Christina?" Garth politely asked.

"Well, she just left for the Moonlight Howl. She told us that she was meeting you there," Jaden replied with a growing suspicion.

"That's not what she said to me last night," Garth returned. "She suggested that we meet outside her den."

Christine interrupted the two and tried to resolve things. "Both of you don't worry. She probably just got too excited and went ahead by herself."

"Probably so. I'd go on ahead. If she comes back, we'll send her there," Jaden reassured Garth.

"Okay, thanks," Garth replied. As he turned and walked away, he mumbled to himself, "See, it's Alpha School. Christina would never forget a date." Deep down inside of him, no matter how much he tried to ignore the painful fact, Garth knew that something was deeply wrong.

Garth arrived just behind the Moonlight Howl rock that was mutual territory between the Western and Eastern wolf packs. He began to look through the crowd of wolf couples all arriving for the Moonlight Howl. Christina was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, however, Garth had a bizarre idea. Was it possible that Christina had gone to Garth's best friend, Alex, for advice and tips of how Garth worked? No, Garth knew that Christina just did not work that way. Shaking the random thought off, Garth continued his search.

A whole quarter of an hour passed. Garth had still been unsuccessful in his search for his love. Christina just was nowhere to be found! Now wandering aimlessly, Garth sat down a good distance from the Howling Rock. He made sure that he had a good view of the couples coming to the howl, just in case Christina was mixed in with them. Finally Garth looked up at the half-moon and sighed. If he had not sighed, Garth would have howled a brief but sad howl because Christina was missing. He decided to save all howling for whenever Christina finally did show up.

A few more minutes passed with no sight or sound of Christina. Gradually however, in the thick and tall bushes behind him, Garth heard a muffled sound. He listened closely. A female wolf was giggling. Looking left and right, Garth had an awkward look on his face. He got up and started to walk away from the area, but something stopped him in his tracks. The female wolf… sounded just like… Christina! Garth was puzzled. There was no way in this world that it could be someone even like his little angel. Desperate, however, Garth walked around the bushes to see what the sounds were. What he found changed his world forever.

**Author's Note: ****Uh-Oh!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: ****Here it is! This! Is! Chapter Eighteen!**

Chapter Eighteen

Garth walked around to the other side of the bushes. What he found was so terrible, and so devastating to him that he thought he would die. There, as plain as anything, was Alex. But Alex was not alone, and that was what shocked Garth the most. Alex was with Christina. They were flirting. Christina was rubbing her head in circular motions on Alex's shoulder. Playfully, Alex moved quickly away so that Christina overdramatically fell down. Then, Alex fell down right next to her and rubbed his head on top of hers. The two wolves got up again did something that Garth suddenly realized he had never done with Christina. They rubbed noses. Much to Garth's horror, they did not rub noses just for a second; they kept doing it. Alex and Christina both closed their eyes and wrapped their arms around each other. Love had changed its targets.

Standing with pure shock and horror all over his face, Garth finally spoke up. "Christina! What are you doing?" Garth yelled with rage.

Christina absentmindedly looked at Garth. "Um, duh! Isn't it obvious? I'm making out with Alex," she responded before turning back to face Alex.

Garth was speechless. Piece by jagged-edge piece, Garth's heart was slowly falling apart and dropping into some deep, dark, deadly, black, and downright terrifying abyss. His eyes were pressurizing. A flood of tears was slowly building up in Garth's head. The stream had been dry ever since Christina had brought pure happiness back into his life. Some happiness alright. Everything that Garth had was slowly falling apart. "Why?" Garth barely managed to choke out.

"What a stupid question!" Christina responded. She turned to Alex, "One second here." She then turned to Alex and whispered just loudly enough so that Garth could hear what she was saying, "I'll be right back. Let me go dump Garth-a-not-alpha-loser here."

Garth-a-not-alpha-loser! That reminded Garth of how he had not gotten into Alpha School with the rest of his friends! Why did he not take that stupid test? The painful memories of the time he spent moping at home while everyone else trained to be alphas tore him apart. The tears were now close to flooding out of Garth's eyes. Christina walked up to Garth.

"Hey there darling love," Christina began. "Oh! Did I say 'darling love'? I meant DEAR LITTLE LOSER!

"But Christina…" Garth choked out.

"Would you shut up and let me tell you why I quit putting up with you and your pathetic little loser-ish self? Gosh! Yeah, Alex and I, we were all over each other back in Alpha School. You know, that little class you couldn't get into because you're so pathetic! It was then that I decided that I needed someone who actually HAD a chance at life and surviving in the world. Basically… hmm, let's see… that's anyone BUT YOU!"

"But before you left, you said…" Garth petitioned. He was cut off by Christina.

"Let's just say that's before I knew how much of a weak wimp you were. You see, Alex is strong. He's handsome. He's protective. He's hot and dangerous. On the contrary you are, as I have said, pathetic!" Christina began to back Garth up as she approached. "You are weak! You are a loser! You have no chance whatsoever in at anything especially love. Your body build is a huge pain to look at! AND YOU HAVE THE UGLIEST RED FUR I HAVE EVER SEEN! NOW GO DIE IN A HOLE SO THAT NO ONE EVER HAS TO SEE YOUR PITIFUL LITTLE SELF EVER AGAIN!"

Garth was crushed now. He whimpered quietly. Although he did not realize it, Christina had backed him up so much that he was now lying on the ground and looking up at her as she frowned at him. Gradually, tears leaked out of his eyes. Painfully, Garth spoke, "I thought we had it all worked out. I thought…"

"Yeah yeah! You thought! I think that shows how STUPID you are… don't you think so Alex?" Christina turned back to Alex, who was sitting in the background, when she said this.

"Oh yeah, I mean, if my little angel says so," Alex replied.

"Just spit it out!" Christina snapped back.

"He's an idiot," Alex stated so simply that to Garth it felt worse than him yelling at him.

Garth tried to speak again. "Alex, I… I thought you were my best friend."

"Notice the 'were' conveniently placed in that sentence," Christina audibly mumbled.

"Garth, Christina is right," Alex began. "You are pretty pathetic. You didn't even ATTEMPT the ASAT because you knew you were too much of a loser to even have a slight chance of passing. You don't have a chance at anything but failure. You're way too weak. And your body looks terrible! I mean, you look like an underfed coyote or something!"

"The fur… you forgot the fur," Christina hinted.

"Oh yeah. AND YOU HAVE THE UGLIEST RED FUR ON THE PLANET!" Alex finished.

"Nice one," Christina said.

"Thank you," Alex answered.

Now it was Garth's turn. "Christina… Are you telling me that everything was a lie? Do you mean to say, that every single time you uttered the words 'I love you' it was just a big lie? Are you telling me, that you abused the three most powerful words in the entire universe on a daily basis? Does this mean, that you are a liar, a cheater, a jerk, and a complete fool? Only an idiot would even dare to misuse the words 'I love you.' Only a cheater would have no problem whatsoever with building up the best love a wolf could find just to go behind his back and get another boyfriend. Only a liar would fill a young wolf's head with fake ideas about love and happiness just so that she could make it all void in the end and throw him aside like a piece of rubble! ONLY A COMPLETE JERK WOULD LEAVE HER BOYFRIEND IN A LIVING NIGHTMARE FOR MONTHS JUST TO COME BACK AND SAY SHE DOESN'T CARE FOR HIM ANYMORE! Who do you think you are? You're gonna catch a cold, from the ice inside your soul!"

"Garth," Christina simply said, "I hate you."

Even though Garth had managed to get a powerful return blow back at Christina, he was still devastated. He stood up, taller than Christina, and looked down at her straight in the eye with a deep scowl on his face. Christina and Garth stared at one another for quite some time. Neither of them blinked, nor did they look away or change the terrible expressions on their faces. In his mind, Garth was thinking one thing. _It is finished, _he thought. Christina saw nothing but disappointment and sadness in Garth's deep green eyes. Garth saw nothing but hatred and disdain in Christina's blue eyes, which were covered with unsightly red blood vessels. The two angered wolves stared at each other, each firmly holding their ground. Simultaneously they finally said, "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN." With that, they each turned around and walked their own separate ways.

**Author's Note:**** Wow! Poor Garth! He just lost his only love in the world! And now, he's all alone. *Sad face* Don't forget that I won't be able to update Saturday because of this extensive two chapter update. However, I will definitely return here on Sunday with another chapter. Please review! Tell me how much you hate Christina now.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: ****Here's the next chapter. Still ****kinda sad. But don't worry, it will be getting better.**

Chapter Nineteen

As Garth firmly walked away from Christina and Alex, he felt extreme pain and sadness creeping in towards him. Picking up his pace, Garth headed to one of his favorite places in the pack territory: the stream.

At the stream, Garth found a rock that reached into the babbling waters. He climbed up this rock and simply watched the water smash into the rock as hard as it could and then resort to flowing out away from the land and into the rest of the stream. Crystal clear, the water reflected the large and bright half-moon hung in the sky above Garth. Unfortunately, the water was also reflecting Garth's image. Garth stared into his own image. He didn't realize it, but tears were slowly and steadily sliding down his face. Desperately, Garth tried to stop weeping. In the end, he gave in, tilted his head toward the starry sky and released a deep, mournful howl.

Garth had never howled out loud in the open before. Surprisingly, his howl was very good. The clear sound lifted up all of the depressed wolf's sorrow over what had transpired. Garth howled and howled. He was upset with everything right now, and he made sure that he got all his emotions out of their prison inside of him in which they had been contained. His best friend destroying their friendship… All the things he hated about himself… The late arrival he was having with Alpha School, which really was the cause of everything… How he had lost his only love in the world… He would be alone now; no friends, no girlfriend, not even any brothers or sisters… And most of all, Christina! He and Christina were perfect together, until Christina somehow convinced herself that Garth was no good. The most painful thing of them all, Christina had said that she hated Garth. It was this fact that truly crushed Garth. Garth could remember all the good times he had enjoyed with his love. He could recall every second they'd spent together: how they had lied next to each other and watched the clouds go by; how they had played together down by this same stream which he sat by now; how they had dared each other to do silly things; how there was once a time when Christina refused to let anyone call Garth anything remotely close to… to… to ugly. When Garth thought of this, his sorrowful howl ceased and he laid his head down onto his paws. Everything that had just been his was now gone. He could not take it.

Garth continued to process everything that had just happened with his head down on his paws. He felt terrible. To him it seemed as if the world was ending. His heart had slowly been falling down inside of him piece by piece. The final piece was now loosening itself. It was hanging by just a thread before it finally gave way and fell down, landing in a pile composed of pieces that had been dropping ever since Christina began to tear Garth apart. Once bursting with joy when Christina and Garth thought they had love, Garth's heart was now completely broken to bits. Once all this had finished, Garth began to cry.

The tears gushed down Garth's furry cheeks. If Mary and Tony saw their son as he was now, they would never again think of him as a cheerful bundle of fur. Crying without one single break to clear his head, Garth felt like he would never again know happiness. He would never again smile. There would be no more cheerful days. And there was absolutely no way that he would enjoy his soon to be Alpha School training. None of his friends would be present. When he got home, there would be no one there to congratulate him or welcome him back other than his parents. In one horrible moment, his best friend and his thought to be love had turned against him. Garth simply could not comprehend this.

"Well," Garth uttered between deep sobs, "I guess… I guess it's just like I thought. The world is truly against me. And now… Now…." Garth cried for quite a while before he managed to choke out, "Now there's nothing to keep me going. No friends… No special someone… Not even a brother or a sister. Christina's right; I should go die in a hole."

When Garth was yet again reminded of the horrible and wicked things that Christina had used to crush him, he shed so much more tears that he thought he would use all the water left in his body. It wouldn't matter, though. If he somehow managed to dehydrate himself this way, no one would ever have to lay their eyes on his "ugly red fur" ever again. Everything would be over. Finished. Garth would die a lonely and loveless death. There would be only two people at his funeral: his mom and his dad. That's it. No one else cared for him anyway. He was beginning to feel like Christina had only read a page in the encyclopedia that was loaded with information on how much of a loser he was.

Garth continued to cry. Although he was getting quite exhausted from crying so much, he could not bring himself to a close. There was absolutely nothing he could do to put an end to the steady river of tears that was flowing down his face. No happy image could be found in this wolf's mind that would even slow the process. It seemed that Garth truly would cry and remain a useless loser until the world ended.

Gradually, something did happen to Garth. Garth was not sure what was going on, but strange images of Christina, Alex and his parents began to flash through his mind along with a few other wolves that he knew from one time or another. The images turned into moving pictures. Finally, everything blurred all together at once. Garth blacked out.

* * *

**End of Part One**

**A Humphrey Loves Kate Production**


	20. Chapter 20

**Part Two: Garth's Story**

**Author's Note: ****Well, yeah, I'm getting really tired of having all these sad chapters so I think I'll let you go through two chapters a day until things get happier. How's that sound? **

Chapter Twenty

Garth opened his eyes. He was lying on his right side inside of some cave. As his eyes became more and more adjusted to the dim lighting, he realized that he was inside of his own den faced towards the entrance. Gradually, he pulled himself off of the ground and into a position in which he was sitting up but still resting on his right side. He was strangely stiff, as though he had been asleep in the same position for a very long time. Glancing around the den, Garth could not find his parents anywhere. He figured they must be out attending to morning duties. Garth continued to become aware of his surroundings. He rubbed the deep sleep out of his eyes using one paw at a time.

Eventually, Tony and Mary came back into the den with part of a caribou. They must have given the rest to someone else in the pack, which was a practice done quite frequently by the alphas when they had killed a large animal. When they saw that their son was awake, they slowly came up to him.

"Good morning Garth," Tony began, "Is everything okay?"

"What? Oh yeah. What happened last night?" Garth questioned.

"I have no idea," Mary chimed in. "You should know that."

"I know, but I can't think of anything. My mind is totally blank." Garth answered.

"Perhaps if we remind you what you were going to do last night, you'll remember," Tony stated looking at Mary strangely. "Last I heard, you and Christina were headed to the Moonlight Howl together."

When Garth heard the name "Christina," all the painful events that had occurred just a few hours ago flooded through his mind. Using every ounce of strength inside of him, Garth fought back the tears that had just begun to well up in his eyes. How could he EVER forget such terrible things? Garth was in complete shock when he realized he had let the darkest moment in his life go to the back of his mind to be forgotten! Was there any way he could tell his parents the dreadful news? No, Garth could never tell them the full story, but he could summarize it. It would be too painful to relate every detail to Mary and Tony, so Garth decided to close the whole thing. He would lock everything away deep down in his broken heart. Garth decided that no one should ever find out about the dark things that had just transpired between him and Christina.

As calmly as possible, Garth began to close the situation he was in. "Oh yeah! Well, this is kind of sad, but last night…"

Garth paused. Mary and Tony looked at each other with somewhat hurt expressions on their faces. Garth continued.

"Last night Christina and I broke up,"

It really was amazing that these words had come from Garth so smoothly. With everything that had just happened, anyone would expect Garth to be choking as he said this. Tony and Mary were in complete shock at how calmly Garth had just announced that he had lost a love.

Although he was speechless, Tony managed to get one word out. "How?" he asked.

"Well, you know." Garth started. He really was drawing a blank on his next move. "We, uh, just decided that we had both changed over Alpha School's last semester and ummmmm… yeah! We broke up, and that's all there is to it." Deep down, Garth knew that he had just told a HUGE lie. Christina was really the only one that had changed, and Garth knew it. It was she that had turned out to be a cheater. She was the one that ended the relationship and it was NOT Garth's fault at all.

"But you were so happy to see her again just yesterday!" Mary exclaimed.

"Well, I know, but…" Garth thought on what he would say next. "Things were just different last night. And it's not that I gave up, it's just that… We were no longer compatible." Garth smiled and looked at his parents.

Tony and Mary looked at each other. They were not idiots. With sly looks on their faces, they silently agreed to let Garth get away with telling as little as possible. More than likely, Garth would let the whole story out whether he wanted to or not eventually.

"Are you sure that that's ALL there is to it?" Mary questioned.

"Um, well, yeah, basically, I guess," Garth stuttered.

"Okay then," Tony said. "And you aren't upset about this? Not at all?"

"Nothing to worry about. I'm letting it slide," Garth lied.

"Suit yourself," Tony responded. "But for now, Mary and I have to go check the territory boundaries. You are welcome to tag along. It might take your mind off of Christina." Tony winked over at Mary.

Garth knew that if he did not go with his parents, he would sit all alone in the den thinking of nothing but what he had lost. Wishing to take his mind off of everything, Garth quickly announced that he would be joining them. Together, the family walked out of the den to begin the boundary check.


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note: ****So why isn't Garth's Mom in the movie? Well…**

Chapter Twenty-One

When he was outside, Garth looked around at the day's scenery. Apparently, while Garth had been conversing with his parents, the sky had become very ominous, dark and stormy. Thunder began to roll in the distance. Using his ears, Garth could detect the sound of distant rain somewhere off to the southwest.

"Seems like a storm is coming," Tony said. "We should hurry so we can beat it."

Walking swiftly, the Alpha Family checked the borders and made sure that there was no sign or smell of any intruders. The thunder continued to roll and before long lightning was flashing across the sky. Suddenly, it began to rain. The rain came down slowly at first, but within seconds there was so much rain falling from the sky that it was impossible to see fifty feet ahead! Mary halted the group.

"Tony, what do you think we should do," Mary shouted above the noise of the downpour.

"I think we should split up in order to cover more ground," Tony announced. "I'll cover the west side. Mary, you and Garth check the east side. Be sure that you don't take any chances, and meet me back at the den as soon as you finish."

The small group split apart and headed in their appropriate directions.

"Mom, are you sure it's safe to be out here?" Garth asked.

"No, not really, but we have to get this done. You never know when some crazed group of wolves could try to attack the pack," Mary answered. "We'll be fine."

"I sure hope so," Garth mumbled to himself.

As the rain continued to pelt down on Mary and Garth, the wind began to pick up. Before long, it had become so windy that rain was slamming into the two wolves from all around. The wind howled through the trees as the storm continued to rage through Jasper Park. Mary and Garth were now drenched with rainwater and fighting the constant gusts of wind that kept hitting their faces.

Eventually, Garth and Mary reached the edge of a cliff. This particular cliff marked the southeastern border of the Eastern Pack's territory. Garth and Mary were already half-way done! All that remained now was for them to turn to the north and walk up to the northeastern border of the territory. It would not be too long before Garth and Mary were safe and sound in their cozy den. They would both be very grateful to return.

Garth and Mary tried to keep from getting too close to the sudden drop-off of the cliff to their right. Growing stronger and stronger, however, the wind was blowing from west to east and was succeeding in slowly pushing Mary and Garth closer to the gaping cliff. Unfortunately, Mary and Garth could not see this. There was now so much rain and wind in their faces that they were forced to walk with their teeth gritted and their eyes closed. Because he was on the right side, Garth was closest to the cliff! Somehow, Mary sensed that her son was getting way too close to sudden death. She let Garth walk a bit in front of her and then moved to the right side of him, placing her body in between him and the cliff.

"You know what, Mom?" Garth said.

"What?" Mary yelled over the noise of the rain and wind.

"I have never been a fan of this cliff, and right now, I'm really hating it. Should we turn back?" Garth questioned.

"No, we're almost there. Just don't worry."

The wind continued to howl; the rain continued to come down. Suddenly, there was a crumbling sound. Garth managed to look over to his right. A small piece of the cliff had just plummeted down to the ground far below. The rain had loosened the soil, and as a result the cliff was now very unstable. Garth stopped and looked behind him. There were other parts of the cliff plummeting to their demise as well. Glancing ahead, Garth saw that Mary was far up in front of him. The rain slowly hid her from his view, although Garth tried to catch up.

Suddenly, there was a rather loud cracking and a crumbling sound. The was coming from where Garth thought Mary was! Although the ground was extremely slick and muddy, Garth ran up to where the sound was originating. The ground rattled back and forth under Garth. A wolf yelped ahead of Garth.

"GARTH! HELP!" Mary shouted directly in front of where Garth was standing.

Garth headed in the direction of the sound. Before long, he found his mom, hanging onto the edge of the cliff. The ground had sunk down right beneath her! She was now at least a mile above the ground! "Don't worry Mom! I'm right here!" Garth yelled frantically. Lowering himself so that he was sprawled out across the ground, Garth extended his front paws toward his mother. "Grab on!" he yelled desperately.

Mary placed both of her paws in her son's paws. Garth pulled with all his might, but the ground beneath him was too muddy. Slowly, Garth was sliding closer and closer towards the edge. Mary's paws were muddy too, and as a result, she was slipping out of Garth's grasp. Garth stopped and looked at his mom. "Don't worry! I'm going to get you out of this!" Deep down, Garth knew he was not strong enough to save himself and his mom. This thought hurt Garth's already broken heart.

"Garth, no," Mary sadly said. "The ground is just too slippery and the rest of this ledge could fall at any minute."

"NO MOM! WE CAN DO THIS!" Garth tried to convince himself. "WE'RE GETTING OUT OF THIS!"

Almost out of her son's tight grasp, Mary tried to calm Garth. "Garth, it's okay. Save yourself. I wish nothing but the best for you."

"Please don't talk like that Mom," Garth said with tears coming into his eyes. Mary continued to slip out of his paws.

"Garth, it's okay. Tell Tony that I love him."

"Please don't go Mom! Please don't! I can't lose Christina and you within a day! Please stay!"

"I love you, Garth." With those final powerful words, Mary slipped out of Garth's paws and plummeted down the edge of the cliff.

"NOOOOOO!" Garth screamed through tears. A gust of wind hit him in the face as he watched his mother falling down with the heavy rain.

Garth could not believe it. His Mom was gone! Just like that she had slipped out of his soft paws and down to her certain death! For the second time within the past twenty-four hours, Garth laid his head down on his paws and cried. The rain fell onto his head and ran down his furry face with his mournful tears. Eventually, Garth got up and returned to his den, crying the whole journey there.

**Author's Note: ****Just a reminder, I really like reviews. I work from 8:30 to 4:30 daily and have play rehearsals from 5-7 every night. I have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. just to get a chance to even work on this story, so it makes me really really happy and I feel like it was worth the effort to do everything when I come home at the end of the day and see reviews. Thanks, it was just a reminder.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note: ****Yeah, yeah, another sad chapter. I apologize for all these sad chapters but I feel that they really are quite necessary because they help us understand who Garth is. And I promise that they will be getting happier. I think tomorrow, or the next day we will be done with these little depressing pieces of literature. Haha! Remember, two chapters a day until they get happy. **

Chapter Twenty-Two

Garth was now back in his family's den, although now, it was really just him and his dad, Tony, that would be using it. With deep sadness scattered through his broken heart, Garth laid down towards the back of the den so that he could keep himself out of the rain, which continued to pour down from the sky. Occasionally, Garth sniffled as he cried silently to himself. Garth remained like this until Tony returned.

When Tony slipped over the mud and back into the dry den, Garth looked up from the ground. Tony's lower body was coated with a thin layer of disgusting, dark brown mud. Garth stared at his dad with the most pitiful expression ever seen on any wolf's face. Naturally, Tony knew something was wrong. He looked around the den, and then focused his attention on Garth. He looked worried.

"Garth, where's Mary?" he asked, but he was already guessing what the answer would be.

Tears welling up in his eyes yet again, Garth tried to speak. At first nothing came out but a stuttering "I… I…" and a bit of "She… Mom is… Mary…"

"Oh no!" Tony exclaimed drastically as he approached his son. "What happened?"

Garth finally began to cry. He rarely did this in front of his parents, especially his dad. Eventually, through tears and frequent sniffles, Garth choked out, "Mom fell off of the eastern cliff."

Upon hearing these fateful words, Tony went into a sudden shock. His jaw dropped. He simply could not believe what he heard! "How… did this… happen?" He too was now stuttering.

Painfully, Garth related the whole story to Tony. When he finished, he said, "She wanted me… to tell you… that she loves you."

Although he was not too much of a soft wolf, Tony moved in toward his son and lied down next to him. Wrapping his arms around Garth, Tony said, "It's okay Garth, it's okay."

"No! It's not okay! Mom's gone! She's really gone!" Garth could barely speak now, but he somehow managed.

"It is okay Garth. It's okay. We will see her someday. And then, we'll all hug each other as a family, like we used to do."

"Yeah, but not in this life!"

"Garth, you're just making this even more difficult on yourself. Right now, you just need to calm down and ask yourself, 'What would Mom want me to do?'"


	23. Chapter 23

**Author's Note: ****Again with the sad chapters! Dang! Actually, this one is necessary because it shows why Tony is rather cold at the beginning of the movie. See guys? I don't just give you sad chapters for no reason! Somebody give me a virtual high five! Haha, just kidding. Okay, let's get serious. *Straight boring serious face* I can't try to be serious without laughing! Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

Chapter Twenty-Three

The next two weeks passed very slowly and painfully for Garth and Tony. Every single day, Tony and Garth got together and tried to talk about all the fun times they had enjoyed with Mary and how she had always been there for both of them. They talked about how good Mary was as an Alpha Female, how she had been able to advise Garth on his previous relationship, how she had helped Garth when he and Christina broke up, how well she and Tony had always cooperated and worked together as a team through every situation, and any other positive thing that they could think about her. Garth still missed his mom deeply, but it was these conversations that began the immense task of putting his broken heart back together, piece by piece. Tony, on the other hand, was not getting over the sudden loss like Garth was. There were several days when Tony would come into the den in a very grumpy and reclusive mood. Garth tried to cheer his dad up by talking about positive things and how good of a mom he had, but this seldom worked.

One day, however, the day of the going away celebration for the future alphas and the night before Alpha School began, Garth came into the den with a large caribou that he had just killed. As he and Tony enjoyed the delicious meat, Garth asked, "Dad, do you think that we'll be able to see Mom soon?"

Tony immediately stopped eating. He did not look happy. "Garth, you know what? Just stop! Stop with the 'Do you think Mom…' or the "Maybe Mom this…' or "I liked it when Mom did this…' Blah blah blah! Don't you get it? Your mom is gone and she is not going to come back! So stop talking about her, stop mentioning her, stop trying to put yourself in her paws and stop thinking about her! Seriously! LET! IT! GO! IT'S OVER! SHE IS GONE!"

Garth was shocked. He did not ever expect to see his dad like this. Tony was almost always in a good mood and was always very patient with his family. The fact that his dad could just blow up like that was unexplainable! "But you said…" Garth tried to reason. Tony interrupted him.

"Whatever I said is stuck in the past just like your Mom and just like you! As your father, the Alpha Male, I order you to stop bringing her up!" Tony stared at Garth with total seriousness in his face. He then mumbled lowly to himself through gritted teeth, "I cannot wait until you go away and leave for Alpha School!" Tony thought Garth could not hear his mumble.

Garth heard everything his father said, even what he had mumbled. At this statement, Garth was reminded of what he thought such a long time ago when Christina left him for Alpha School. _Sometimes,_ he had thought, _I wonder if the whole world is against me_. Garth was now certain that this was true. Although he may be the son of the Alpha Male, he was a wolf doomed to be outcast and against the whole world. How could he ever be loved by anyone? Garth looked up at his father and said, "You're lucky I leave tomorrow."

When Tony heard this, he knew that Garth had heard his mumble. He did not care. Within hours, he would be rid of his son for nearly a whole season. In addition to this, he would be rid of all the pain and memory of his beloved wife. Tony thought to himself, _Now it's all making sense. Garth is the cause of your sadness and heartache. Every time you look at that… that… that child of yours, you are instantly reminded of the love you lost! And it's all because he was such a weakling! He could not simply help a wolf up from the ground! What a loser! He has no chance in Alpha School!_

Garth had been studying Tony and the familiar scowl on his face. Thinking back to when he and Christina had broken up, Garth could recognize that scowl. It was the same scowl that Christina had worn right after she told Garth how much of a loser he was. Because Garth had this experience, it was rather easy for him to discern that his own father was thinking terrible and hateful thoughts about his son! Just a week ago, it would have been impossible for Garth to even imagine Tony thinking hateful thoughts about him.

Tony refocused his attention on Garth and finally said, "As soon as the little 'Going Away' celebration thing is over, you are going to bed, and you won't get up until it's time to leave for Alpha School. Got it?"

Garth submissively looked back at his father and choked out the words "Yes sir." He and Tony then went to the rather uneventful and cheerless reception for all the future alphas. Curling up in his bed later that evening, Garth thought to himself, _It's time to change myself. I'm tired of being thought of as a loser by everyone. I know my dad was looking at me like I was a loser back there. I am going to go to Alpha School and I am going to overwork myself. When I graduate, I will graduate as the best, most fit wolf of the class. I will get into fitness and transform myself from thin to top notch physical condition. From what I have seen over the past few weeks, I can't count on anyone and therefore I don't need anyone. I can do it all by myself. I am the next head Alpha._

After Garth had set these powerful goals and standards for himself, he rolled over and was soon fast asleep. He would be leaving his father who apparently no longer cared about him. Although he still wished he had already graduated, Garth was thankful that he would finally be going. If he had a future at all, it was through Alpha School.

**Author's Note: ****R! RE! REV! REVIEW! Thanks. (And no, I am not a depressed person, so if you see all these sad updates and are beginning to worry, don't. I'm just fine.)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Author's Note: ****Alpha School Chapter. Read up.**

Chapter Twenty-Four

Finally Garth got the chance to go through the Alpha School semester. When Garth got there, he thought it would be fun and enjoyable. He was quite wrong. It was as if everyone arrived at Alpha School thinking they would have a lot of fun. Within the first few days, however, ever single wolf had lost their enthusiasm for Alpha School. Max, the head trainer, had made it very clear that enthusiasm was something that should be left to the omegas. Alphas had other things to do, like overwork themselves to achieve high-end goals in Alpha School, for starters.

As he progressed through the semester, Garth made sure that he worked harder than his hardest. As a matter of fact, he was named the hardest working student within the first week. All the other alphas acted like they despised him, but they were really quite jealous of his abilities. Gradually, Garth developed more muscle mass and eventually lost his thin and slightly underweight figure that had been so hated by two of his "friends" just a month ago. He was now quite attractive. Towards the end of the training semester, Garth started to notice that the female wolves looked at him longer. This did not slow him down. Sometime after he and Christina broke up, Garth had convinced himself that true love was not for him, so he did not make any attempt at starting another relationship, especially during the training semester.

On one particular day, however, as Garth was working on his tree squats, a female wolf approached him. She was very beautiful, with dark tan fur, and had brown eyes. Garth knew that this wolf's name was Katy, but he did not know anything else about her. Katy walked up to Garth and spoke to him.

"Hey there sexy," she began.

At the word "sexy," Garth choked. He could not believe what he had just heard. Someone actually thought that he looked good! Although he really had no romantic interest, he spoke to Katy. "Oh. Hey." Garth continued to perform his tree squats.

"So, Garth, listen. I was thinking… You know, after Alpha School and all, that we should go out on a date or something. Just the two of us… alone… under the moon, maybe. How about it?" Katy asked.

Garth knew that Katy was actually one of the prettier wolves in Alpha School, but he was not interested. "Sorry Katy, but I'm not interested in romance right now." To be honest, Garth did not know if he would ever be interested in romance again.

"It doesn't have to be romance," Katy continued, "maybe just more of a loving friendship."

"No thanks."

"Are ya sure?"

"Yep."

"Positive?"

"One hundred percent."

"Darn!"

With that Katy left Garth alone to finish his exercising.

Garth could not believe it. He had just said "no" to one of the most coveted wolves in Alpha School. He really did have a problem.

It seemed long and drawn out, but Alpha School finally managed to come to an end. The graduates attended their celebration and were all proclaimed as new alphas. They all walked across the same stage that Garth had seen Alex and Christina walk across a whole semester ago. As Garth took the stage, he felt like he had made a huge personal achievement. Unfortunately, he had no one to share it with. After all, he really had made no friends in Alpha School and his dad probably could not care less, even though they had not seen each other since the day Alpha School began. While all the wolves cheered for their friends or relatives that had graduated, Tony simply clapped when Garth took the stage. This did make Garth somewhat disappointed, but he waved it off. After all, he was a full trained alpha now and would be living on his own before long.

After the celebration Tony and Garth met up. The meeting was somewhat awkward at first, with Garth smiling strangely at his father as if he expected something. Finally, Tony spoke up.

"Well done, Garth," he said with a smile.

When Garth heard this, he was very pleased. Everything that he had just worked so hard for was now his. He was a future Head Alpha.


	25. Chapter 25

**Author's Note: ****We're getting close to the movie!**

Chapter Twenty-Five

Garth was woken up one spring morning by Tony. Through sleepy eyes, he asked what was going on.

"Winston has ordered an emergency peace meeting," Tony declared.

"What for?" Garth questioned.

"Well, while you were gone, there was a massive caribou herd migration," Tony began. "It appears that almost all the caribou have left the Eastern Pack's territory. So in order to get enough food for the pack, I sent in a few hunting parties on different occasions. And now, Winston is getting upset."

Garth was speechless. After he overcame his initial shock at what his dad had done, however, he said, "Dad, you can't just send a few hunting parties into another pack's territory like that."

"Did I say 'A few'?" Tony asked. "I meant thirty."

"So you're telling me that while I was gone, you hunted in Western Pack territory?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"But, this could mean a war! That is against pack law!"

"First of all, if anyone starts a war, it will be us. We're the ones who are having a caribou shortage. And second, quit asking questions and come to the meeting with me. We have to be there in ten minutes. Come on."

Garth got up and took a speed bath down at the stream. When he was ready, he and Tony sprinted to the river that divided the Western and Eastern Pack territories. Down at the river, Winston was not very happy.

"Tony," Winston began, "I am sure that you know why I called you here."

"Of course I do… Winston," Tony said. He and Winston started to circle one another as if they were getting ready to fight.

"Um, can't you guys just sit down and talk?" Garth questioned the two Head Alphas on their strange behavior.

"Don't worry, we do this all the time," Winston assured Garth. The two wolves continued.

"I suppose you aren't too happy about me trying to keep my pack fed," Tony stated.

"Tony, you know that you broke pack law. If you wanted to hunt in our territory, you should have asked. But no! You just came right in and took our caribou. And on thirty different days too!" Winston and Tony were circling each other again.

"You know there is hardly any food left in our territory," Tony said angrily. "The entire area is becoming a wasteland!"

"Well then why don't we make a deal. If your son Garth and my daughter Kate were to get married, the packs would be united and our troubles would be over. What do you say?"

Garth was shocked when he heard that his marital future was being arranged without his consent. However, given the fact that he had decided romance was not for him, he did not care. There probably was not a single alpha in the world that he could be happy with. If Tony and Winston wanted him to marry someone he did not love, he could do it. It could not be too bad. After all, Garth had heard that Kate was a pretty good looking future Alpha Female. Everything would probably be just fine.

"Deal," Tony agreed to Winston's offer.

"Great," Winston said. "They can meet at a Moonlight Howl sometime soon. How about the one at the next half-moon?"

"The sooner they meet, the better," Tony said. "The Eastern Pack is getting close to starvation. We can't go like this much longer."

"In that case, meeting adjourned. And Tony, just ask the next time you need to hunt in our territory, got it?"

Tony smiled mischievously. "Of course, Winston. Good day."

With that, the two Head Alpha wolves broke their fight circle and returned to their territories.

Back in the den, Garth questioned his father on the matter of his marital future. "So I'm just going to marry Kate, just like that?"

"Yeah. Is there a problem? It is one of your responsibilities as a Head Alpha's son," Tony reminded Garth.

"Well, yeah, but…" Garth paused. "I don't know. It's fine I guess."

"Good," Tony replied. "Because that's the way it's going to be. But right now, I think you have a territory patrol scheduled, am I right?"

Garth suddenly remembered that it was his turn to patrol the Eastern Pack's territory as a new alpha. "Oh yeah! Right! Well, I better go. See you later."

Garth walked out of the den and began his patrol through the degrading Eastern Pack territory. It really was not necessary, however. Right now, the territory was in such bad shape that no self-respecting wolf would ever try to lead his pack to conquer a territory that could not even provide a decent meal for a handful of wolves. Nevertheless, Garth worked his shift and got back to the den as soon as he was finished.

As Garth sat down alone in the den, he thought to himself, _Well now I know my future. I'm married to Kate, whether I like it or not, and we're both Head Alphas of the Western/Eastern Pack Union. I wonder how that will work out?_

Garth did not know that the future as he knew it was about to change dramatically.

**Author's Note: ****I think we're now REALLY close to the movie! Don't forget to review. By the way, I don't know if I can guarantee two chapters tomorrow; they're getting happier anyway after this. So, I guess you could call this the last official sad chapter in this sad chapter streak we've been in for WAY TOO LONG! I'm just glad I can update for you guys just about every day. See you tomorrow, in chapter twenty-six!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Author's Note: Well, ****this is a bit of a lighter mood chapter and the ones that follow will be on a steady happiness increase until, of course, we see some GarthxLilly lovey stuff and the happiness just takes off. (Can't wait for that!) Because of today's lighter mood, there will only be one chapter. The same will apply day to day unless otherwise noted. Thanks for reading.**

Chapter Twenty-Six

The next couple of weeks were mostly uneventful for Garth. Tony, however, had some developing problem in his back and spinal cord. Apparently, something back there was losing the cartilage that is necessary for proper flexibility. As a result, if Tony made a move too suddenly, whatever it was would crack and cause him to be paralyzed until he or Garth could pop it back into place somehow. Garth thought this was kind of strange and that he should go see some medical wolf, but Tony insisted it was only minor and that it was just a price for aging.

About three days before Garth was scheduled to meet his future mate, Kate, at the Moonlight Howl, Tony suggested that Garth work on his howling. "Hey Garth," he began, "I don't think it would be a bad idea to practice your howling and make sure it's in shape."

"Yeah, I probably should," Garth said. He hadn't howled ever since that night he broke up with Christina. Whenever he tried to howl, his mind was forced to recollect all the painful times Christina had given him. Because of this, Garth simply did not howl. After all, if there was no howling there were no painful memories. It was only logical. Now, however, Garth was going to need to howl in front of a bunch of other wolves that would be watching him. Unfortunately, Garth had no idea how his full-grown howl would sound. He decided to go out and work on it right away.

"I'm going to go ahead and practice now," Garth informed Tony. "See you later."

Garth walked out of the den that he shared with his dad and off towards Howling Rock, which was mutual property between the Western and Eastern Packs. When he got there, Garth climbed to an area just below the top that was partially concealed, just in case he needed to hide the sound of his howl. Sitting down, Garth tilted his head up to the sky and tried to howl. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Garth could not make sense of it! He strained and strained on his vocal cords, yet no howl was coming. Bringing his head back down to eyelevel, Garth thought, _Is there some weird trick to howling that I forgot about? Hmmm…_ Suddenly Garth remembered the so called trick. In order to howl, a wolf must have an adequate reason. There was not a single wolf that could howl just because he was going to howl. Howling required an emotion, like joy, love, sadness or serious business. Garth tried to put himself in a serious business position because it would be the easiest right now. Nothing came. Next, he tried pretending he had just met the most beautiful alpha female wolf in the world and that they were getting married. Nothing came. Garth then tried pretending that he was overjoyed because his mom had come back to life. Again nothing came. Finally, Garth tried to think back of when he broke up with Christina and the sharp pain that had been driven into his heart, causing it to shatter. At first there was something of a mumbling, stuttering sound that was trying to become a howl, but in the end nothing came._ Oh well_, he thought, _I'm pretty sure it will come when I need it_. Garth gave up for now and walked back towards his den. He would most likely spend the small remainder of the day working out before he went to bed.

Finally the day in which Garth was to meet Kate came. Garth spent the day making sure he was in peak condition. Tony even gave Garth the day off hunting. He said that he had already sent a group of wolves out to hunt in the morning anyway. Garth did not know it, but Tony was breaking the pack law again as he sent the hunting party into the Western Pack's territory, where a whole herd of caribou had stopped to graze. Garth also was unaware that today was Kate's first hunt and that the Eastern Pack wolves would not be a pleasant surprise for her and her hunting party.

When the evening came, Garth met with his dad, Tony. Tony informed him that everything had already been set up with Winston in the afternoon. Garth simply had to go to the Moonlight Howl, look attractive and find Kate. If everything went well, the marriage could be tomorrow sometime in the evening. There was, however, one small thing Garth had still forgotten to work on… HIS HOWL! Nevertheless, Garth set out for the Moonlight Howl, completely unaware that he had not yet perfected his howling.

**Author's Note: ****And with that, we have caught up to the movie. Review! As far as I can see now, this story will most likely go a bit past the movie, but not too far. It's definitely more than half-way done. Thanks for reading and I'll see you all tomorrow.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Author's Note: ****Welcome to the movie Alpha and Omega! Well, at least my interpretation of it. Anyway, these next few chapters will be my interpretation of the actual movie. There will also be a bit of "behind the scenes" scenes where we see what other things Lilly and Garth got into while Kate and Humphrey were stuck hundreds of miles away down in Sawtooth National. Enjoy!**

**Update Note: Something happened between transferring from Word to this site and the chapter repeated itself. This made two chapter 27s in chapter twenty-seven, which makes absolutely no sense. So if anyone got an alert for a 2,000 plus word chapter, that's why; it's not because I went on some massive typing spree, unfortunately. Anyway here's chapter twenty-seven... And there is only one chapter twenty-seven... Well, there SHOULD be only one chapter twenty-seven... Blah blah! Whatever! It's super early and the server probably isn't fully awake yet. Ha ha! Yeah... Sure... **

**Enjoy!**

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Garth was at Howling Rock under a lovely half-moon and a beautiful clear sky. Wolves had already begun their howling and couples were swaying to the sweet music they created. Climbing to a high ledge set in the rock, Garth sat down and looked for Kate. Just before Garth had left, Tony had informed him that Kate was a tan wolf with brown eyes. Her omega sister, Lilly, would be accompanying her. Garth scanned the horizon in search of his potential future mate.

Finally, Garth saw a wolf that he was almost certain was Kate. She was walking up the hill and there was a white wolf who seemed like an omega that was accompanying her. Kate wore a magenta flower behind her left ear. She and the wolf next to her were conversing as they came up the hill. Something gray flew over the two sisters and crashed into a tree branch. It looked like some sort of animal.

Quickly, Garth made sure he was ready. He was not certain if he should go down and meet her halfway or if he should wait until they saw each other. With little time left, Garth decided to just stand on the ledge that he was already on and look hot. Garth waited for Kate to see him. He got extra lucky. As soon as Kate saw him, a meteor shot across the sky right behind him, adding to his dramatic effect that he was having on her and her sister, who was most certainly watching as well. Garth noticed that Kate had seen him and leaped off the rock to go and meet her. As he came closer, he spoke.

"Kaa-hey-te," he said in a partially sexy tone.

Kate seemed nervous. Step by step she inched closer to Garth and gasped out, "Garth… ha! Oh… Hello."

Garth was about to introduce himself and hopefully get to talk to her sister as well. In the past few seconds, Garth had observed Lilly and thought that she was really cute. She appeared to have lavender eyes, but her extremely long bangs were covering her left eye and part of her right one. Suddenly, just as Garth was about to say something, a wolf dropped down directly in front of him.

"Woah! Ow! Ow! Oh, my butt! My butt!" a male wolf said in a goofy tone as he kicked up dirt onto Garth trying to expend the energy that his rear end had absorbed from his apparent fall from the tree above.

Although Garth could not see anything, he knew that the gray blur that had crashed into the tree earlier was now on the ground. Dust, dirt, and more dust were kicked up into Garth's face by this inconsiderate wolf. Garth grew very angry, but couldn't do anything because he was coughing uncontrollably. Deeply enraged at whatever wolf had just ruined the moment where he met his future mate, Garth tried to recover himself and get back to the interrupted conversation.

"Humphrey…" Kate said in a surprised tone.

"Yep," Garth heard the new wolf say as he continued to kick more dust into the air. "Man, you should really do something about that cough." The wolf, whom Garth had just heard was called Humphrey, walked over to Kate and said something to her. "Be careful Kate; there's something going around. Tails and ears are falling off, literally." Humphrey then walked up to Garth, who was just getting to a normal breathing rate as the dust cleared. "The name's Humphrey," Humphrey said.

"Garth," Garth said in a calm, angry tone. Actually, he was very upset that this idiotic wolf had just put a whole bunch of dirt in his coat that he had spent so long grooming and cleaning in the late afternoon.

"Wow," Humphrey continued, "you sure are a big one. Practically a moose! Ha ha. Where you hidin' them antlers?"

Unable to take any more from this very rude wolf, Garth questioned, "Who's the coyote?" This insult was rather appropriate, as Humphrey was very thin and lightly built.

Humphrey was hurt. He hid his pain, however, with a bunch of talking about nothing in particular. "Oh, yeah, okay; cause I'm like…"

Kate had also had enough of Humphrey. She interrupted him by saying "No one important." Turning to her sister, Kate continued, "Lilly, why don't you take little Coyote Humphrey and run along."

Lilly had been staring at Garth this entire time. It was quite evident to anyone that might be watching that she thought Garth was one freaking hot wolf. Kate bumped Lilly's left side with her right elbow. "Huh? Oh yeah. Come on Humphrey," Lilly sighed as she remembered the "rule" about alphas and omegas not being allowed to mate, "Let's go eat some of those… Bitter berries."

Alphas and omegas cannot mate. That rule was driving just a few wolves that we have seen in this scene quite berserk. To some wolves that rule seemed just stupid. Why shouldn't anyone be allowed to marry whomever they wish? Garth, Kate, Lilly and Humphrey did not know it, but things were going to take a new spin later that evening.

**Author's Note: ****So, how was it? Did I manage to keep it consistent with the movie? Does Garth's past parallel this plot? Is everything in shape? Let me know in that wonderful thing all authors love to see: a review! Also, there is a possibility of another two chapter update sometime over this coming weekend, however, I will not refrain from updating on one particular day like I did last week. (Remember the "two chapters Friday no chapters Saturday" deal thing? Yeah, I will try to keep from having to do that again.) If I do two chapters, it will most likely be one sometime in the morning as in before noon, and another sometime in the evening, possibly late, as in before midnight-ish. After that, updates are regular unless otherwise mentioned. I'll see what I can do. Thanks for reading! **

**This has been a Humphrey Loves Kate FanFiction production.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Author's Note: Oh look! A longer chapter! Read read! Sorry that it's kind of a late-in-the-day update. Oh well. And today will not be a two chapter day because I didn't get a chance to type two chapters. Ha ha! Simple as that.**

Chapter Twenty-Eight

As Garth and Kate walked up the Howling Rock, Kate began to question Garth about his life. From the way Kate was acting, Garth thought that she actually did like him and would not mind being "forced" to marry him. But Garth was not so sure that he was okay with marrying Kate. Why couldn't he marry someone else in the Western Pack? Kate continued her interrogation.

"So tell me what your interests are," Kate giggled. "You know, what does Garth like to do?"

Quickly, Garth snapped out of his thoughts and put a list together. "Oh! Well…" He looked side to side for something to use in a small demonstration. "I'm really into fitness! Rapid sprints… tree squats…" Garth quickly found a small log and placed it on his back. He then squatted up and down making sure that the log did not fall off his back. After he had finished his brief demonstration, Garth threw the log off his back and looked back at Kate, with one front paw suspended in the air. "But you know us alphas," Garth said as he and Kate climbed higher up the rock, "gotta keep fit to lead the pack." In the back of his mind, Garth had suddenly remembered… HIS HOWL! He would need to do that in a few minutes, but he had not howled ever since Christina broke up with him! With little time left, Garth decided just to get it over with. "But, what really gets me going is…" Garth took a deep breath in and slowly began to make some sort of whistling and breathing noise. It sounded like Garth was trying to howl with some sort of laryngitis. When the sound had reached its peak, Garth was howling the world's worst howl… IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE PACK!

Kate could do nothing but stare. She thought this wolf would be flawless in every way. She sure was wrong. As she glanced around, Kate noticed that every wolf at the Moonlight Howl had stopped what they were doing in order to find the source of the horrendous noise. Enormously embarrassed, Kate tried to snap out of her stupid grin, but she could not. A bird dropped from the sky and landed right at her paws. Kate looked back at Garth and waited.

Garth decided he was done. He knew his howl was terrible, but maybe someone in the pack liked it. Playing it cool, Garth jumped back over to Kate and slid in on his left side so that his head was propped up with his left front paw. "Was it, uh, good enough for you?" Garth asked. He had no idea what Kate's response would be.

"Unbelievable," Kate said as she dragged her paw across the air. This really was not a lie, because she could not believe that Garth had such a terrible howl. What Kate did not want to hear was what Humphrey would make of this sudden turn of events. The sly omega would surely use this situation to his advantage. Kate knew that she would be bumping into Humphrey later that evening, so she observed the scene, and though of a few comebacks. Looking up at Garth, who was now standing up, Kate nervously said, "You know, a ha! You know what, I'm just going to going to go get some… some water! Yeah, I'm going to go get some water! And uh, I will be right back."

Garth knew why Kate was leaving, but he played dumb. "Oh, well no worries," he said. "I'll just keep my vocal cords warm," he called out to Kate before she left.

"A ha ha! Yeah!" With that, Kate shot out of Garth's view.

Garth sat where he and Kate were going to howl and watched Kate travel back down to the ground until she disappeared where the forest began. Looking up at the sky, Garth tried a small howl again. The terrible and sickly noise described earlier came out again. Another bird dropped down from the sky next to the one that had fallen where Kate had been standing. Garth decided to quit howling for a bit and think about what had just happened.

So Garth had come to the Moonlight Howl and met Kate. Kate was an okay wolf and she looked pretty good, but Garth was not sure that he loved her. After that howling session of his, Kate might have decided to run away so that she did not have to marry someone with such an awful howl. Garth smacked himself for being so terrible at howling. He was starting to feel useless again. Right now, however, Garth decided to ignore his emotions and pay attention to the things that had just happened.

What if Garth still married someone from the Western Pack? What if that wolf was not Kate but was someone he chose? If the marriage that was supposed to take place soon was for the union of the packs, then wouldn't it be better if Garth liked the wolf that he would be marrying? That way, Garth would be able to focus on the pack and not on the terrible marriage he was trapped in for life. Garth decided right then and there that he would not get himself into a marriage that he did not want to be in.

So now, if Garth did not want to be with Kate, was there some other wolf that he thought was kind of cute in the Eastern Pack that he could consider marrying? Other than Kate, Garth really did not know anyone but… LILLY! Lilly was Kate's sister! Garth thought she was kind of cute with her hair covering her left eye and the way she had just stared at him when she saw him and then the way that Lilly had pulled herself away… But no! Lilly would not work. Lilly was an omega and Garth was an alpha. For the second time in his life, Garth saw that a STUPID custom followed by the packs was in the way of happiness. He could not be the only wolf that was upset with the rules! There had to be others! Maybe when he was the new leader, he could see about abolishing the alpha and omega rule. Everyone would be a lot happier if this happened, and he would not have to marry Kate.

Now that Garth had thought of all of this, was there any reason that he explicitly did not want to marry Kate? This was easy. Garth simply was not and never would be in love with Kate. She just did not quite seem like his type. Of course, he had thought Christina was his type, but time and Alpha School had shown him that he was deeply mistaken. Garth would get married, most likely, but he would do everything he could to get married to someone he loved.

As Garth's thoughts drifted back to Lilly, he asked himself a few questions about her. Why should he marry her? Suddenly, Garth realized he was going way too fast! First of all, Garth knew nothing about Lilly other than the well-known fact that she was shy and that she was Kate's omega sister. In addition to this, what would Tony think about Garth wanting to marry an omega? More than likely, Tony would think that the whole idea was madness and that Garth had gone insane. Garth sighed. Ever since just after Mary had died Tony had really become heartless and careless about anything that happened. Perhaps when Tony saw that Garth truly loved someone else, he would soften up a bit. Garth was not sure what would happen, but he did know one thing was becoming quite evident: Garth was beginning to have feelings for a certain little white omega named Lilly.

Coming back into reality, Garth tried his howl out again. It was getting late, and everyone but Garth had left the howl. Another bird fell from the sky, as Garth asked, "Kate?" He could not figure out why Kate would just leave and forget to come back! Maybe Kate really did run away. Garth was not sure what he should do, so he attempted another fail howl and pulled a whole flock of birds down from the sky before he headed back to his den to go to sleep.

**Author's Note: I will be closing the poll on Garth's Story soon because I need to get a new one out there. So if you have not voted, please head over to my profile page and vote on what you think about Garth's Story. Thanks.**


	29. Chapter 29

**Author's Note: Well, if you're lucky, I'll get a chance to type two chapters today and there will be another update later. I hope there will be another one.**

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Garth woke up late the next morning. He had a slow breakfast and a bath before his father came in and told him that Winston had ordered an emergency meeting.

Apparently, when Kate had left Garth last night, she had gone into the woods and was now missing. Coincidently, Humphrey, the wolf who had kind of ruined Garth's date with Kate, was missing as well. Even though it was not his daughter, Tony was actually more upset over this turn of events than Winston was. This was probably because Winston believed that Tony had set Garth and Kate up in order for Kate to disappear the next day. Tony, of course, was not that berserk. He would break a few rules to get what he wanted, but he would never do it to hurt someone intentionally. No one really knew what had happened, however, but Tony and Winston were both very upset over Kate's sudden disappearance.

When Garth heard that Kate was actually missing, on the other hand (or paw), his spirits actually lifted. Maybe this would mean he had a better chance at finding true love. Was it possible that he would not be forced into a marriage with someone he did not love? Garth would find out sooner or later.

At the meeting, the Western and Eastern alphas and their leaders had all gathered. "Where is she?" Tony said in a dark tone.

"Maybe that's what I should ask you," Winston returned.

"You know that's not my style!" Tony said. Both leaders were getting quite heated over the entire matter.

"My wolf, Candu, knows your style," Winston replied lowly.

Candu, a small gray wolf who looked extremely aggressive, turned towards the Eastern Pack and growled. Garth looked over at him and saw what looked like three scratches behind the wolf's right ear. Winston was saying that Tony had set wolves to attack Candu after another hunt that had gone wrong the other day! Garth could not believe that his father had transformed from a kind and happy pack leader a few months ago to this cold and nearly evil arch enemy of the Western Pack.

Tony growled back at Candu, and for a second it looked like there would be a brief battle. Winston's wife, Eve, a very light tan wolf, came onto the scene and spoke to stop the possible fight.

"I just want to say one thing," Eve began in a calm tone. She finished becoming angrier with each word. "If any of you wolves have hurt my daughter, I will personally RIP out your eyes and SHOVE them down your throat SO YOU CAN SEE MY CLAWS TEAR YOUR CARCASS OPEN!"

At this sudden statement, every Eastern and Western wolf took one step back. Eve, who looked like such a sweet and loving mother, seemed to be slightly insane. It did not look like any wolf wanted to mess with her.

"Um, Mom?" a voice said. From the back of the Western group, Lilly stepped out towards the stream that the two packs had been conversing over all along. Garth noticed Lilly. He wanted to get to know her more, but he wasn't quite sure how he could. In addition to this, he wanted to get to know her more, WITHOUT making it obvious that he wanted to be with her. Maybe something would work out.

"Not now dear, Mommy's in a rage," Eve said rather sweetly.

"Well," Lilly continued, "well since Kate stood up Garth, I could show him around until she gets back!"

"Humph! I wouldn't say stood up," Garth mumbled to himself as he flopped his head and tail up into the air. He still was not sure how to react in front of the group right now.

"GARTH!" Eve yelled out. Apparently, she had heard his low mumble and did not "approve" of it.

"Sounds good to me!" Garth said truthfully.

"Well come on, Garth," Lilly said as she started to walk away from the group.

Garth jumped over the small stream into Western Pack territory and started walking after Lilly. As he was walking, he passed Eve, who growled at him. Because Garth had been anticipating something like a bite on his hind leg, he was quite startled and quickly darted to Lilly's side and away from Eve. Garth and Lilly walked away from the group of wolves and headed deeper into the Western Pack's territory. Neither of them knew it, but they were about to become more than best friends.

**Author's Note: Okay, we can have some fun with this Garth and Lilly stuff. Let's see what I can pull off. Review! And don't forget to vote on the poll. I will be closing it on Tuesday. Thanks. Oh yeah! I wrote a one-shot of Garth and Lilly back when they were puppies. Just one of those "Maybe" or "What if" stories. It runs almost completely parallel to Garth's Story and it probably takes place before it. Go check it out. It's called Love Starts at a Young Age. It's kind of cute. Thanks for reading.**


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

Garth followed Lilly into the Western Pack's territory. Along the way, the two wolves simply looked around and enjoyed the afternoon scenery. An occasional rabbit would hop by; every now and then a squirrel would dart up a tree to escape the potential wolf predators. Gradually, Lilly began leading Garth up a small mountain.

Garth had been around Lilly for a good amount of time by now and she was not saying anything. Because he was getting a little uncomfortable, Garth broke the silence. "So, uh, Lilly… What do you like to do?"

"Huh?" Lilly said apparently startled by Garth's sudden communication with her. "Oh, well, you know; omega things. I play around, break up the alpha's fights and come up to this mountain sometimes. It's called Rabbit Poo Mountain." Garth and Lilly had just now reached the top of the rather small mountain that was nestled close to the center of the Western Pack's territory.

"So, why is this called 'Rabbit Poo Mountain'?" Garth questioned, although he was not quite sure that he wanted to find out.

"Because this is where rabbits like to poo," Lilly said.

Garth believed Lilly. Startled by her response, he began hopping back and forth between paws saying "Ew! Oh! Ewww!" He followed Lilly to the top of a small rock, and sat down next to her.

Lilly chuckled. "I was only kidding," she assured him.

"Oh ho oh," Garth began, "I get it. You're a funny omega."

"Um-hm," Lilly nodded.

"Okay, make me laugh," Garth tried Lilly's improvisation skills.

Lilly took a few steps away from Garth and thought hard. "Um… um," she began, "What am I?" At this, Lilly flung herself on her back and began wildly waving her paws in the air in all sorts of directions.

Garth was stumped. He could not quite interpret what Lilly was attempting to impersonate. After studying her charade for a few seconds, he gave up. "Uhh, you got me."

As she continued with her impersonation, Lilly cleared Garth's confusion. "It's a turtle that fell and can't get up," she stated.

"That's pretty good," Garth said trying to show his appreciation for his new found friend.

Standing up on all fours, Lilly continued. "Okay. What's this?" Suddenly, Lilly flung all four of her legs out from underneath her white body and dropped flat on her stomach. She stared at Garth with eyes wide open and her tongue hanging out of her mouth. To finish this off, Lilly made a vague gagging sound.

"Hmmm," Garth said clearly stumped again by the omega.

"It's turtle road kill!" Lilly informed Garth.

Garth chuckled. "What else can you do?" he said interested in seeing if this omega had any more talents.

"I just do turtles."

"Okay. It's my turn," Garth called to Lilly as he began heading towards the other side of the mountain. "You wanna see something an alpha can do?"

"Uhh, would my mother approve?" Lilly said unsure of what Garth intended to show her.

"Of course," Garth assured Lilly. He was now really beginning to think that she was cute.

"Well, okay then," Lilly responded.

As Garth watched Lilly hop off the rock that they had been on, he began thinking to himself. _Wow! She really is one cute wolf! If only I did not have to marry Kate! This is kind of all my dad's fault. What am I thinking? It wouldn't matter. I'm an alpha and Lilly is an omega. We'll just have to stick to being close friends. Oh well. I can always find someone like her, right? _

Garth and Lilly walked across the mountain side by side, inching closer and closer towards each other as they made conversation. They spent the rest of that day together before departing and agreeing to meet up again the very next day at the same time. Garth did not know it, but he was actually one of the few wolves that Lilly had opened up to, since she was such a shy and reclusive girl. Although it was not perfectly clear at first, Garth's heart was slowly but surely coming up out of the terrible black hole that it had been trapped in for so long. Piece by piece Garth's heart was mending itself. It would not be too long now before Garth realized that something was happening between him and Lilly: something that would turn his life in a completely new direction.

**Author's Note: Same old scene from the movie. But can we say that this is getting cuter? Review review! Thanks for reading!**

**Update: I just got my beta profile. That's right people, one month ago today, I joined this site. Anyway, if you need or just want any help at all with a story, let me know, but I think I can only do Alpha and Omega stories right now. And if for some reason you can't get to my beta profile, let me know! I did everything correctly, but I still don't know if it will show up to everyone else. Thanks.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Author's Note: I know this is also an old scene but I think that it can be interpreted in a very sweet way. Knock yourselves out! Oh! Was that out loud? I meant, enjoy!**

Chapter Thirty-One

The next day, Garth and Lilly met up again on Rabbit Poo Mountain in the late afternoon. Lilly showed Garth a few more turtle impressions and Garth showed Lilly some of his alpha stunts and tricks.

Garth was in the process of showing Lilly a new trick of his that he had named "Dinner for Two." As a matter of fact, Garth had only invented the stunt early that morning before he came over to the Western Pack's territory in order to spend more time with Lilly. Without warning, Garth began performing for Lilly.

Concentrating hard on where he would jump and where he would land, Garth stared at the landscape as he lowered his body towards the ground. Suddenly, he leaped onto a rock and then soared over to a fallen tree. With agile movements, Garth rebounded off a strong root that was attached to the dead tree and grabbed a smaller log with his mouth. He then threw the log high up into the air and flipped over so that he was now holding himself up in a hand (or "paw") stand. Using his back legs, Garth juggled the short log around in circles before he finally chopped it into ten identical half pieces, which, of course, landed in a perfect triangular prism right in front of Lilly. With his performance complete, Garth stylishly threw himself back into an upright position and said, "Voila! Dinner for Two! Ha ha! It's a new move I've been working on for stalking prey."

By now, Lilly was simply trembling with excitement. Her tail thumped up and down on the ground as she stared at this wonderful alpha wolf. She was falling in love. "Wow! You're good!" she managed to exclaim.

"Thanks," Garth said as he jumped off of the large log and approached Lilly. "Now you try," he said encouragingly.

"Oh no!" Lilly said as she backed into the tall grass that had been behind her all along. "I'm not… I'm not much of a hunter." Lilly imagined that Garth had no respect for her at all and that he was just being nice so that Eve did not go berserk on him. She did not want to throw away the small amount of respect that Garth might have for her by doing something stupid. Lilly had trapped herself with false assumptions.

"Come on! You'll do great," Garth reassured the cowering omega. He did not want to see her miss out on any opportunities. "Just do what I do."

"Okay," Lilly agreed. Maybe she had thought wrong about Garth after all.

Garth crouched down on the ground next to Lilly and focused on two pine cones that were hanging from a tree about fifteen yards ahead. "Ready," he began a countdown. "One…"

"One," Lilly said after him.

"Two…" Garth continued as he flexed his forelegs.

"Two…" Lilly focused her attention on the pinecones ahead and tensed her muscles.

"THREEEEEEE!" Garth launched himself straight towards the pinecones and began to soar through the air.

Lilly was caught off guard. She gasped as her muscles relaxed and she followed Garth with her lavender eyes. When Garth looked like he was almost to the pinecones, Lilly leaped after him.

Garth landed softly on the ground with the pinecone in his mouth. He had been so precise that he had landed right under the branch on which the pinecone was hanging from.

"WAAAHHHHHH!" Lilly screamed as she flopped past Garth and crashed into something far ahead. She was hidden from Garth's view due to the tall grass.

Garth was very concerned. He yelled out, "Lilly!" and quickly began running towards her crash site. When he got there, he found Lilly with her head stuck in part of a dead tree log that remained rooted in the soil.

Lilly attempted to back out of the tree log, but her head was lodged firmly inside. With a loud snapping sound, Lilly managed to move again but still had half of the log stuck on her back. Stumbling back and forth, Lilly attempted to regain her balance. Finally, she stopped wobbling and stood still. She was quite humiliated with the log stuck on her back.

Garth was not quite sure how to respond to the shy omega. He decided to lighten the mood by bringing up Lilly's obsession with turtles. "A turtle… Right?"

Lilly stopped moving and laid herself down on the ground with the log still stubbornly clinging to her back. She retreated into it and made herself look very much like a turtle returning to its shell. _Great,_ she thought. _If he ever had even the slightest attraction towards me, it's for sure gone now_. _I don't have a chance with him. He deserves better than me._ Speaking up, Lilly sadly reminded Garth, "I told you, I don't hunt." _And that's why I'm a pitiful omega,_ her thoughts finished.

Garth did not want to see Lilly so down on herself. He recognized that she was showing the same symptoms he had had back when he thought himself as a worthless loser. Quickly, he thought of something to cheer her up. Padding up to her, he leaned down and flipped the log off her back. Garth came close to Lilly and looked her right in her eye. "Maybe, this will help," Garth said as he pushed Lilly's fur out from in front of her left eye and up towards her corresponding ear. "Wow!" he said astounded at the beauty that was now looking him straight in the eye.

'"Wow' what?" Lilly asked as her spirits began to lift.

"Your eyes!" Garth exclaimed as he stared at the beautiful female omega. "They're beautiful!" No matter how hard he tried, Garth could not take his eyes off of Lilly. She was just astounding with both of her lovely lavender eyes facing him

"Oh," Lilly softly said as she had trouble believing what she had just heard. She had never ever received such a kind compliment from anyone: especially from a smoking hot alpha.

As Garth continued to stare into Lilly's eyes, a small idea flashed through his head. Could he find love again? Even more, could he find love with an omega? Shaking himself out of his trance, Garth managed to say, "Well… Come on!" He then led Lilly away to another place, glancing over his shoulder every now and then to get another peek at her amazing eyes.

Lilly got up and followed Garth, causing her hair to again conceal her left eye. She was still in shock that a future Head Alpha would even bother to pay so much attention to her. Her own parents had not even given her as much praise and approval as Garth had just done! Desperately wanting to keep herself attractive for this alpha, Lilly blew her fur up to where Garth had placed it just seconds ago and continued on.

**Author's Note: This is your last chance to vote on the poll I have out for Garth's Story! I will be closing it tonight (June 19, 2012) around 8:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time (That's 6:30 FanFiction time.) Tomorrow, I will be announcing a possible second story theme and look forward to hearing your opinions on it. Review.**


	32. Chapter 32

**Author's Note: Uh, yeah. Sorry that I missed yesterday's update. Work caught up to my writing and I was unable to publish yesterday. So here's an extra cute chapter to make up for that.**

Chapter Thirty-Two

Garth and Lilly had been walking side by side for hours now, and the sun had long since set below the horizon. The full moon gradually rose higher and higher in the sky. Eventually, Garth and Lilly found themselves all alone and in front of Howling Rock.

"Garth…" Lilly shyly began. "I, um… The moon sure is beautiful tonight, isn't it?"

Garth looked over at Lilly. He did not want to jump to conclusions just yet. As his heart had been slowly reassembling itself, however, he was beginning to realize that he was in love. Every molecule in Garth's body wanted Garth to just forget the pack laws and customs and tell Lilly how he thought he was falling in love with her. Garth could not bring himself this far, however, so he simply agreed with what Lilly had said. "It is beautiful; it sure is." _Not nearly as beautiful as you,_ he was thinking.

Lilly let out a small and inconspicuous sigh. She was feeling something bigger than she had ever felt before. This strange and new feeling started somewhere deep in her heart. It then worked its way through every blood vessel in her body until finally Lilly was trembling all over with the most powerful emotion in the entire universe: love. Lilly had had a few crushes before; occasionally she would think some male omega was cute. But never had she felt the pure love for another individual that she was feeling right now. Lilly wished with all her heart that Garth would feel the same way about her, and yet, it seemed that Garth only thought of her as a sweet friend. It would make sense, anyway. Garth was betrothed to Kate, not Lilly. No, Garth would get married to Kate, and Lilly would be left alone… heartbroken… and deeply hurt.

Garth looked at Lilly again. Although he knew it was against pack law, he thought he could ask Lilly to a howl to cheer her up. Even if he could not howl the kind gesture would at least make her feel better. "Um, Lilly? Would you like to go up to Howling Rock and howl with me?"

Lilly was stunned. Garth, a high up and hot shot alpha, was asking her, a lowly and disrespected omega, to a howl! This idea was not only outrageous but it was against the Law of the Pack! If Garth and Lilly were caught, they could be severely punished. After some thought, Lilly decided that she did not care. Garth was too hot, cute and amazing to be refused by her. She wanted howl with him anyway. "I'd love to," she finally said, still in some shock.

"Well, let's go," Garth said cheerfully as he began to lead the way to a high ledge on the rock. As he led Lilly up the rock, however, he began to think to himself, _What are you doing? This is illegal! And you don't even remember how to howl! But… I don't know. Lilly just seems so perfect. She seems like a wolf who cares about others, unlike Christina. I don't care if she is an omega, I AM IN LOVE WITH HER! There! I thought it! I am in love! …With an omega._

When Garth and Lilly reached their ledge of choice on Howling Rock they sat down looking out into the distance. After a few moments of silence, Garth said, "So, shall we howl?"

"You first," Lilly encouraged.

_Great,_ Garth sarcastically thought. _This will be the worst night of my life. Failing at love… again! Let's get this over with! _Garth tilted his head up towards the sky and attempted to howl. "Arrrrrrrrrrr wooo hooo hoo hoooo hoo!" He cut it short because he still sounded like some dying animal. As Garth turned to face Lilly again, a bird fell from the sky and landed between them. Garth decided to face the truth. "I know, it's not very good, is it?"

"Well," Lilly began. She paused before continuing. "Everything always has room for improvement," she kindly stated. "I can help you."

Garth smiled when he heard this. Lilly was unlike anyone Garth had ever met. She could accept anyone, no matter what their flaws may be. Lilly was a wolf who actually cared about others. She was not someone who wanted only those who appeared to be flawless. She was not a wolf that would fall in love with someone just because they looked really hot or had a great body, like Christina was. Lilly was a real wolf who knew what love really was.

It was at that moment that Garth knew he had found love. This time, however, there was something different. Garth would never be able to explain it, but somehow, in some way, he felt more originality: more life. He felt like the love he was feeling was permanent. The love he had for Lilly was undying. The feelings flowing through Garth were causing his heart to pound harder than it ever had before. With each beat, Garth's heart shoved pure love throughout his entire body. Before long, Garth felt quite dizzy, happy and somewhat loopy. It was almost as if the love Garth was experiencing was separating him from his right mind.

"That's great," Garth responded to Lilly dreamily. His pupils dilated as he stared deep into Lilly's gorgeous, lavender eyes. _I love you,_ he thought. _Now I just need to find a way to tell you._

"Well, okay then. Let's get started," Lilly said. She noticed how Garth was staring right at her, and she loved it.

For the next ten minutes, Lilly worked with Garth and basically reminded him of his natural instinct that would release his howl when needed. Garth listened to Lilly for the most part, but he frequently found himself staring off into space in her direction, occasionally catching a few keywords like "feel whatever emotion you have," and "let it flow right through you." When Lilly had finished her lecture, she had Garth attempt a few more howls. Again birds fell from the sky completely in a daze because of the awful sounds they were hearing. Extremely patient, Lilly swept another bird over to the side with her paw and then looked at Garth. "Alright," she calmly said. "Now take a deep breath, and howl from here," Lilly said as she placed her paw on Garth's heart.

Garth looked up at Lilly as she said this. He was thoroughly enjoying the feeling of her paw on his chest as he thought _I love it when you touch me there. _He did not want her to take her paw off of his chest.

"And I'll join in," Lilly finished comfortingly.

Following Lilly's instructions, Garth took a deep breath and howled. Instead of a horrendous screeching sound, however, Garth released a beautiful, crisp and clear howl up towards the full moon. As he howled, he looked over at Lilly, who was just joining in. Garth had never heard Lilly's howl before now. She had one of the most beautiful howls ever. Like Garth's howl, her howl was beautiful and clear, yet it seemed to have more elegance and grace to it than Garth's did. Garth and Lilly's howls, much like their personalities, were perfectly compatible.

A few minutes later, Lilly and Garth simultaneously lowered their heads and ceased their wonderful music. They glanced at each other and smiled. Before long, Garth could not contain himself. He began jumping around and howling random melodies, clearly excited that he had his howl back because of Lilly.

"See? That's so good!" Lilly encouraged Garth.

Suddenly, there was a crackling sound, like a twig breaking beneath someone's footsteps. Garth looked over to where the sound had generated and saw an army of Eastern Pack alphas advancing towards the Western Pack's territory. Tony, Garth's own father, was leading them!

"Oh no!" Garth exclaimed. Turning to Lilly, he quickly said, "You better go!"

"But, no one has to know," Lilly softly said. She was not sure what was going on.

"Please," Garth begged in a low tone, "Go, now!"

As if on cue, Lilly suddenly saw the group of Eastern Wolves advancing into the Western Pack's territory. "Oh no," she whispered to herself as she darted away from Garth.

Garth was not sure why Tony was leading the alphas in the Eastern Pack into the Western Pack's territory in a war formation. But whatever the reason was, Garth knew it could not be good!

**Author's Note: Oooh! A slight cliff hanger! Hopefully I'll have the conclusion to it tomorrow. But who knows!**

**Anyway I have a new story possibility. This is just something that randomly popped into my crazed mind so if you think it will be stupid, tell me. What if, in Alpha and Omega world, there was Garth and Lilly together but in another Alpha and Omega world, Garth and Lilly were not together? Then what would happen if the two Lillys switched worlds on accident from some mysterious portal thingy? I kind of think it might be stupid and way too far away from the original Alpha and Omega story myself so if you say something like "Oh my gosh! Sci-Fi and Alpha and Omega is terrible," I won't be offended at all. I will probably end up writing a more original story about Garth or Humphrey or Kate or Lilly anyway. You know what? Forget the whole idea! It's stupid. I know I probably would not read it so you probably won't either. But if you really want to see it, tell me in a review. Or if you have another idea/plot basis for a future story, tell me what you're thinking. In fact, why don't you tell me what you think of this chapter in a review? Thanks for reading! **


	33. Chapter 33

**Author's Note: Just a medium length chapter. Enjoy! I'm lucky that I managed to get up this morning and type before I go to work. Yay!**

Chapter Thirty-Three

Tony approached Garth with a scowl on his face. He looked over at Lilly, who was just vanishing from view. "Howling with an omega, are we?" he said with a displeased tone.

"But I was just…" Garth tried to explain, but Tony interrupted him.

"Get with the others!" Tony commanded.

"What's going on?" Garth questioned.

"We're going to take the valley; and our caribou!"

Garth was shocked to hear that his father was now crazy enough over the whole marriage affair that he was ready to start a war. He glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of every Eastern Pack alpha ready for battle. Although it was against his will, Garth put himself in the ranks, making sure that he was in the very back. No matter what happened, Garth would not fight Lilly's pack.

Tony led the crazed army down to one of the Eastern and Western territory borders. This particular border was lined with rocky ledges and walls on the Eastern side and on the Western side. Ready for battle, the Eastern Wolves placed themselves in offensive positions all along the Eastern rock ledges. Tony was out on a ledge that extended out over the small valley between the two rock walls.

The Western Pack wolves arrived soon after the Eastern Pack wolves were in position. Before long, Tony, Winston and every other alpha in the area, except Garth, was growling at the opposite side.

Garth was off to the side and somewhat next to his dad. He had already committed himself to not fighting. If the two packs did start fighting, Garth would run in and rescue Lilly, who was right next to her dad. He would not lose her, not now, and not ever. Garth hoped and prayed that something would happen to prevent the terrible tragedy at hand.

Tony began to growl at Winston. "It's the full moon, Winston," he said angrily. Garth did not know it, but Tony had agreed to give Winston until the full moon to find Kate just after he had left the emergency meeting a few days ago.

"I can see that… Tony!" Winston growled back.

"I didn't want it to come to this," Tony simply stated with wolves growling and barking behind him.

_Ha! Sure you didn't. You're the one who is going crazy over this! Gosh! You could help him find his daughter,_ Garth thoughts said.

"Yet here we are," Winston finished Tony's statement.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, two female voices yelled out, "Stop the insanity! Go organic!" The two female wolves were Reba and Janice, the "odd" omega wolves in the Western Pack. Garth laughed to himself when he saw these strange Western wolves. Wishing to help end the caribou shortage, both of these slightly weird wolves had committed themselves to eating fruits, berries, and vegetables. As they ran between both packs, they continued to scream their chant that they had created. Unfortunately, they did not know that they were only looked at as strange beings among the other wolves.

Embarrassed by the two "freak" wolves that he apparently had in his pack, Winston tried to resume the potential war talk. "So anyway…" he began. Tony helped him out.

"All I asked was for you to follow our customs: unite the packs!" Tony said. "But no, your daughter had to up and run away."

From somewhere high up in the rocks, a female voice cried out, "I didn't run away!" Both Eastern and Western wolves looked up to where the voice had generated. Standing high up on the rocks was Kate, and she was perfectly safe. Another gray wolf was with her, but he did not say anything at first. Bounding from rock to rock, Kate and the wolf that was with her came down into the midst of the two packs and ran over to Winston, Eve and Lilly.

"Kate," Winston exclaimed with relief.

"She's back," Lilly said happily.

As the Head Alpha family rejoiced in their reunion (and as Eve was going crazy over Humphrey being with her daughter for so long), Tony signaled Garth to follow him. Garth then followed Tony down to the small valley where Kate had happily been reunited with her family. When Tony and Garth had reached the family, Tony jumped into the conversation. "You came back, to marry Garth," he said as he nudged his son.

Garth walked up to Kate and managed a very weak smile. He now knew that there was no way he could possibly be with Lilly. The small and vague love moment he had shared with Lilly earlier that evening would never be built upon. Garth was stuck in an arranged marriage, and there was no way he could get out.

"Yes," Kate agreed to Tony much to Garth's horror. "And unite the packs!" she announced loudly, causing both Eastern and Western pack wolves to cheer.

Garth glanced around as everyone cheered. It was strange, but Garth was almost the only one that did not approve of his own marriage. Every other wolf in both of the packs thought Kate and Garth's marriage was the solution to their problems. Garth could not bring himself join in on the cheering, no matter how hard he tried.

As the wolf packs began to separate, Garth looked over at Lilly. Lilly had her head bowed down and could not bring herself to looking up. Garth did not want to end up breaking down in tears in front of the whole assembly, so he did the only thing he could: he walked away. He turned around and walked away from the only true love he had ever known. He would never ever be able to be with his one true love… The one wolf he loved, but had never even gotten the chance to kiss. Garth had been so happy with Lilly just a few hours ago. Now, he left the scene with pure sadness returning once again to his heart. And to think Garth's life had just started to become joyful and meaningful again!

**Author's Note: Again with the sadness! But you guys know it's only one night… Well, if you've seen the movie recently, anyway.**

**Also, I really want to finish this story up and start work on another story. But guess what? I need ideas! I would LOVE it if every one of you wonderful readers would send me a review or a message on what type of story I should write next. It will be for Alpha and Omega though. Do you know what I would love even more? I would love it if each of you would submit a story plot idea that I could take and run wild with. So why don't you leave a review and tell me your ideas! Or if you can't think of anything, just let me know how this chapter was. Come back if you get an idea, though. Thanks! I look forward to reading ideas!**

**Update Note: A new poll is open! This one asks what type of story I should write next.**


	34. Chapter 34

**Author's Note: I apologize for the re-update here, but I needed to make an announcement and updating a chapter with just an author's note is actually against the FanFiction policies. With that said, I am very sick right now. I have been sick off and on for the past three weeks but working out under a hundred degree weather in the fields for seven hours a day really doesn't give me much time to recover. As a result, I have gotten worse; very much worse. I work on this story when I can, but it is very hard to find time because I come home from work sick and have to rest just so I can go tear my body up the next day. This is the worst job ever! So anyway, I wish I could write with this story, but I may have to go until the weekend without an update. Fortunately, for all of us, this stupid job ends on Friday. I will not be re applying to be hired again. Thanks for your understanding, and I really am upset at this situation.**

**Humphrey Loves Kate**

****

Chapter Thirty-Four

Garth moved slowly the next morning. His dad was busy making final preparations for the long awaited wedding ceremony, so he was left to get himself ready for his big day. A couple of the male wolves that had been Garth's companions back in Alpha School came over to help him out and advise him, but other than that, Garth was almost completely alone. After Garth had gotten himself ready, he looked at his reflection in the water to make sure that he was satisfied with his appearance. When he had finished everything, Garth met up with his dad and they along with some other Eastern Pack wolves walked to the Western Pack valley, where the ceremony would take place.

Garth watched as his dad walked over to Winston and sat down beside him. Immediately afterwards, Garth found himself staring at his future mate, Kate. It was obvious to nearly everyone that Garth was very nervous. Frankly, however, he had a right to be nervous. After all, he still loved Lilly and he really did not want to marry Kate. Garth wasn't sure how he could possibly let the masses know that he loved an omega at this moment, however, so he spoke to Kate. "So…. Are you ready?"

Holding her body very low in a nearly crouched position, Kate answered Garth. "Ahem! Yes."

Garth could tell something was a bit wrong on Kate's end as well. This fact actually made it easier on him, because it meant he was not the only one upset with this marriage. "Good…" Garth trailed off. He glanced behind Kate and caught sight of a scene that melted his heart. Just next to Winston, and as sad as ever, Lilly sat with her head down. She looked as if she was about to cry. Lilly did not want to lose the perfect wolf for her to her sister.

"Are you okay?" Kate questioned snapping Garth out of his trance.

"A ha ha!" Garth nervously laughed. "You bet. No problems on this end. Ready to go, go, go!" Garth lied to Kate as he stretched back with his head lowered and paws sticking straight out. He caught a glimpse of his dad, Tony, anxiously signaling him to hurry up. "So you wanna start this thing, or me?"

"We'll start together," Kate said.

"Start together… A ha ha." Garth responded nervously.

For the next few moments, he and Kate began and performed the marriage ritual that wolves had been doing for thousands of years. Just when Garth had his eyes closed and was prepared to accept Kate as his mate by rubbing noses, however, Kate stopped the ceremony and backed away from Garth. Garth, unable to find Kate with his eyes closed, stuck his paw out in front of him to see if she was there. Finding nothing but air, Garth opened his eyes and whispered, "Kate, what are you doing?"

Kate nervously stared at Garth with a shocked expression frozen on her face. Snapping out of her trance, Kate looked at her parents and back at Garth as she spoke. "I… I can't."

"CAN'T! HA HA!" Garth rejoiced to himself in front of everyone. He was simply overjoyed that things might actually work out in his favor for once. There was a growing chance that he would not marry Kate. As Garth suddenly realized what he was doing, he tried to cover himself up. "I mean, ahem, you can't?"

Like a fan upset at the umpire, Tony started protesting from the audience. "What is this Winston?" he angrily said. "Why can't she marry Garth?"

"Quiet," Winston warned Tony. Approaching Kate, Winston whispered, "Kate, Kate! Wh-why can't you marry Garth?"

"Because… I…" Kate appeared to have something crazy to confess much like Garth did. "Ha! I uh… fell in love with an omega," she nervously finished.

"An omega?" Winston exclaimed. Eve fainted right next to him.

Tony growled as he spoke and approached the scene. "Ha ha… An alpha and an omega. That's against pack law."

Garth was nervous and upset by all of this, but he knew what he had to do. Now was the perfect time to confess his love for Lilly. Besides, it would help Kate out. "Dad," he began. "I also am in love with an omega."

When Lilly heard this, her sad head popped up from its low position. She gasped as she looked straight at Garth unable to believe what she had just said. The wolf she loved more than anything or anyone in the whole world had just confessed that he loved her. This was the happiest day of Lilly's life.

Garth walked straight towards Lilly and looked at her as the elder wolves struggled to comprehend what they had just heard. Garth smiled at Lilly and she smiled back at him in silence. Finally, Lilly asked,

"Do you really mean it?"

"Of course. How could I ever lie to you?" Garth said.

"Oh Garth," Lilly began. "I love you too."

Garth continued to stare at Lilly. He knew that there would be consequences for what he had just done, so he tried as best as he could to just live in the moment that he and Lilly had just created among all the chaos around them.

**Author's Note: Don't worry, I will try to get myself back on track. Just know that I am exhausted and really struggling with all the nasty stuff going on in most likely one of the worst summers of my life. But I only spent half of it in my terrible job. And I had planned to write this story quickly and help out at my OWN home this summer. I had to give it all up to do this. MISTAKE! So, I'll just learn from it and move on, hopefully to get a better job when school starts. Oh yeah, review! It encourages in times like this.**

**Review button below, for your convenience.**


	35. Chapter 35

**Author's Note: GUESS WHO'S BACK! Humphrey Loves Kate that's who! Anyway, my job is over, I had to quit the play I was in and I am feeling mostly well after this sickness I have had. It turned out to be a sinus infection by the way. Ouch! It should be completely gone soon. But as this sinus infection leaves, my writings will return. Here's a chapter I typed up just for you guys. It's kinda short and I felt like it wasn't that good, but here you go. Let me know if it was okay in a review. Thanks.**

Chapter Thirty-Five

Garth was so caught up in the happy moment that he and Lilly were sharing that he did not realize the tension growing behind him. Garth snapped back into reality, however, when Tony yelled out, "TAKE THE VALLEY!"

Instantly, wolves from the Western and Eastern packs began charging at each other and fighting over the valley. Garth found himself in the middle of an all-out feud, and Lilly was right next to him staring at everything as it happened. With no time to lose, Garth shook Lilly out of her trance and led her out of the craziness. Shielding Lilly with his body, Garth kept harm away from his love. (Eve would have been very proud.) Every wolf in the valley was fighting for the caribou supply, but Garth did notice Kate surrounded by everything down on the ceremonial rock. He was about to attempt to get her out of it, when she suddenly yelled out, "STAMPEDE! STAMPEDE!"

Tony and Winston both looked up from the fight. Numerous caribou were running right for the battlegrounds. Realizing the grave danger, Winston screamed "Everybody! RUUUUUNN!"

"To the sides of the valley!" Tony commanded.

As every wolf ran for his or her life, Garth saw that his dad was caught right in the middle of everything. Apparently, the disk that was giving him a hard time had just snapped out of place, leaving him partially paralyzed. Garth watched as Winston ran over to Tony and smacked his spine back into shape. Tony and Winston tried to get out of the stampede's path, but they were quickly surrounded with nowhere to go except straight ahead. Everyone, including Garth, could only hope that the two leaders were fast enough to escape the oncoming stampede of caribou.

Garth continued to stare at the scene in front of him with Lilly by his side. Something whizzed over his head. Garth looked up and saw a hollowed out log that had been split in two. Kate and Humphrey were inside of the log and flying down to Tony and Winston. They hit the ground and were thrown a little ahead of the log, which was lying on its side so that it made a dome-like shield. Tony and Winston jumped behind this shield as Kate and Humphrey crawled towards the log. Suddenly, Humphrey jumped up to the log and Kate was engulfed in the stampede of crazed caribou. Without a moment to lose, Humphrey jumped into the stampede to protect Kate. Seeing that Humphrey loved Kate so much that he would risk his life to save hers, Winston and Tony simultaneously decided to forget all the "laws" and defend the young couple. They leaped out from behind the log and diverted the caribou around the two lovers. All this time, Garth had slowly been falling into a trance much like what Lilly had returned to earlier.

The final caribou ran away from the scene and the dust gradually cleared. Every wolf that had been fighting was now making his or her way to the center of the valley where the dramatic scene had just ended.

Garth shook himself out of his trance and then got Lilly's attention. "Lilly," he began. When he got no answer, he yelled, "Lilly! Snap out of it!"

Lilly shook herself from her trance when Garth yelled her name. "Huh? Wha… what… What happened?"

"I'm not sure, but it can't be good. Come on, let's find out." Garth led the way down from the ledge he and Lilly had been sitting on to Kate and Humphrey.

"Kate," Humphrey kept saying as they got closer. "Kate, don't go. Please. I love you."

Garth and Lilly sat a little way back from Humphrey and Kate, so that they could give them space. From where they were, they could see Kate lying on the ground and motionless. Garth hated to think about it and he especially did not want to tell Lilly, but he was certain that Kate was dead.

**Author's Note: So dramatic! Don't forget I have a poll out asking what type of Alpha and Omega story I should write next. I'd love to hear from you there just as much as I'd love for you to welcome me back in a review! Feel free to do so cause I appreciate it so much. Also, I'd like to thank those of you who have reviewed even though I wasn't updating for awhile. Thanks! I'd also like to thank those of you that have reviewed this story as you read. Thanks! And I'd like to thank those of you who have ever reviewed this story, even if it was only on one occasion. Thanks!**

**Come on people, don't be shy! Review! You all are great readers! :-)**


	36. Chapter 36

**Author's Note: A bit of a longer chapter. Sorry it's so late in the day, family wouldn't leave me to write. Happy fourth of July everyone!**

Chapter Thirty-Six

With tear filled eyes, Lilly looked at Garth. Garth wanted to somehow fix everything, but he knew that this was something that was just out of his control. No matter what he did, he could never restore Lilly's sister.

Only ten minutes ago, everyone had been so angry and hateful. Now, things were turned around. Starting with Humphrey, every wolf began to howl mournfully for the death they had just caused. Each wolf knew that he or she had played a part in the death of Kate. Each wolf knew that if they had only cooperated, Kate would still be alive. It was everyone's fault that Kate was now unconscious and more than likely dead.

One wolf in particular had been observing everything around him. This wolf was the hard-hearted Tony. Deep inside of him, he knew that Kate's death was mostly his fault. If he had not been so disagreeable towards Winston, he might have actually been able to sort things out before a stampede was generated. Kate was gone. Tony was responsible, yet he would not repent. Glancing around him, Tony noticed that he was the only wolf in the valley that was not howling.

Suddenly, Tony felt something… new! He felt this strange and painful feeling in his soul. Tony was regretting his cold attitude and decisions. Unable to contain his feelings, Tony finally threw his head up and howled out all his regrets and mistakes that he had been creating ever since his wife died. Tony was now a better wolf. He was a wolf that would think a little more of others before he acted. He was becoming more and more like his old self.

Kate continued to lay lifeless on the ground. She really did look like she had passed away, with her body pulling a gray tint onto itself. However, as the wolves continued to howl, something began to happen to her. Her heart began to beat faster and her chest started to rise and fall again. Before long, Kate opened her eyes. She was alive!

Garth could not believe what he was seeing! Kate was not dead; she was alive! Nudging Lilly, who had her head down in sadness, Garth directed Lilly's attention to the scene in front of them. When Lilly saw what was happening, she could not believe her eyes! Garth and Lilly looked at each other and smiled. They knew everything was going to work out.

Garth and Lilly gradually refocused their hearing on Kate and Humphrey. "Is everyone staring at us?" they heard Kate say. At this, Garth and Lilly looked up.

"Well, no, not really," Humphrey started. When he saw Garth and Lilly look up, however, he said, "Well yeah! Now they are."

"Oh darn," Kate continued. "Cause I wanted to tell you something."

Garth and Lilly watched as Kate whispered something into Humphrey's ear. Whatever she was saying must have been something happy, because Humphrey's tail started to wag.

"What? Really?" Humphrey asked.

"Uh-huh," Kate confirmed.

"Okay, well… Well I wanted to tell you something too." Humphrey said. He then proceeded to whisper into Kate's ear just as she had done to him. Whatever he was saying must have been happy as well, because Kate started to giggle as he spoke into her ear.

Tony and Winston had been watching everything from over by the log this entire time. They knew that what was happening in front of their eyes was actually against pack law. Little by little, however, they were both concluding that the whole law saying alphas and omegas could not be mates was very stupid. "You know, maybe this could work," Winston said happily.

"Oh I…" Tony began. He was unsure on what to do. When Eve came up behind him and growled, however, he made his decision. "Alright," he said.

When Garth heard this, he looked over at Lilly. Lilly, however, had already heard everything. She leaped up into the air and pounced on Garth. Looking up into Lilly's eyes, Garth kissed Lilly. This was the first time he had ever kissed a wolf. He was enjoying every millisecond of it. As the packs cheered around them, Garth spoke up, "I love you Lilly."

"I love you too, Garth," Lilly responded as she resumed the kiss.

Garth broke the kiss. He had something to ask Lilly. "Um, Lilly, I need to ask you something."

"Go on…" Lilly said hopefully.

"Will you be my mate?" Garth smiled up at Lilly.

Lilly was so overjoyed at this that she fell down right next to Garth so that they were both eyelevel. "Yes!" she said. "YES YES YES!" Lilly then pulled Garth into another kiss.

When Garth and Lilly broke the kiss, Garth said, "Wanna get married right now? Everyone's already here anyway."

"Let's do it!"

Garth and Lilly walked over to Tony, Winston, and Eve and asked if they could get married. Naturally, Eve was uneasy about giving her daughter off to be married but when she saw she was the only one who had not yet agreed to the proposition, she consented. Garth and Lilly would be married immediately and the alpha and omega law would be abolished.

"Can I have everyone's attention?" Winston quieted down the cheering wolves. "Tony and I have discussed matters while everyone has been celebrating. We have decided to abolish the ridiculous law which forbids alphas marrying omegas. The Western and Eastern packs will be united through the marriage of Garth, Tony's son, and Lilly, my daughter. Are there any questions?"

"Yes," Humphrey yelled from out in the audience. "Kate and I would like to get married too, with your permission."

Winston looked out at Humphrey, who was standing right next to Kate. Apparently, he had proposed at the same time that Garth had proposed to Lilly. "You have my permission," Winston said as he smiled at Humphrey.

With that, everyone walked excitedly back to the ceremonial marriage rock where they were earlier. This time, however, everyone was happy. Every wolf knew that what was about to happen was meant to be.

Garth, Lilly, Kate and Humphrey were all walking towards the ceremonial rock side by side respectively. They all looked at each other and smiled warmly. Garth knew that everything was going to work out after all.

**Author's Note: Everyone ready for some more of my weird and random humor? Here's Garth singing…**

**I KISSED A WOLF! AND I LIKED IT! HER LIPS WERE SOFT! AND IT FELT SO RIGHT! AND I AM, IN LOVE TO-NIGHT! CAUSE I KISSED A WOLF AND I LIKED IT! I LIKED IT!**

**Review please, thanks!**


	37. Chapter 37

**Author's Update Note: Yeah yeah, sorry for the re-post but I want to let my readers know what's happening without violating FF policies.**

**So...**

**I broke my toe. I broke it right before I had friends over for a sleepover by stubbing it on the edge of our oven. Note to self: Don't do sleepovers at my own home with broken toe. PAINFUL! Anyway, I spent all of today finishing the sleepover and then heading straight to the doctor for X-rays and analysis on what was going on. After that I came home and slept. I was exhausted. I did manage to read a few chapters of other authors' stories on here and all, but I did not get around to the next chapter in Garth's Story. :-( So, if I get good rest tonight, I will be able to get some sort of an update out on Saturday, but I don't know what will happen for the remainder of the next week. I have another play (different one than the BAD one, but we won't get into that) next week with rehearsals every day so that will affect my schedule again. More than likely I'll be reading lines with my foot propped up for at least a whole week. This is the first bone I have ever broken and I do not plan on breaking any others! So with that, read chapter thirty-seven if you haven't yet, and I'll type the next chapter with my foot propped up when I get the chance and energy a little bit later. This is really painful.**

**Anyone else notice that I seem to be having a lot of stuff like this lately?**

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"You may begin," Winston and Tony said after all the wolves had taken their seats around the two couples.

"Who should go first?" Humphrey asked. Like Garth, Lilly and Kate, he was really overexcited about getting married, but he did not want to seem too rude.

"We'll all go together," Kate said.

"Okay," Garth, Lilly and Humphrey agreed.

As Kate and Humphrey began their marriage process, Garth and Lilly started theirs. Leaning in towards Lilly, Garth used his nose to pick up Lilly's scent. After he had acquired Lilly's sweet, lavender-like aroma, he nibbled on her left ear as she nibbled on her right ear. Garth could not help but giggle when he felt Lilly's sweet teeth touch his left ear. Next, Garth and Lilly looked each other in the eyes.

"Ready?" Garth asked Lilly.

"You better believe it," Lilly answered.

Garth leaned into Lilly with his heart beating fast and loud. Lilly leaned into Garth. Garth closed his eyes and continued to slowly close in on Lilly's nose. Finally Garth's nose met Lilly's and the two wolves rubbed their noses. Garth opened his eyes to look at Lilly. Lilly and Garth were no longer friends; they were mates. Garth smiled at Lilly and she smiled back at him.

"This will work," Garth said encouragingly.

"I always knew it would," Lilly replied.

Garth and Lilly looked over at Kate and Humphrey and saw that they too had just finished the all-important nose rub. They smiled at each other just as Garth and Lilly had done. Kate and Humphrey were talking to each other, but it must have been private because they used low tones that were almost like a whisper.

"Congratulations!" all the wolves said as they began cheering.

Later that night, a special Moonlight Howl was held in celebration of the packs' union and the fact that alphas and omegas could now become mates. Garth and Lilly howled together under the full moon in one spot and Kate and Humphrey howled together in another area. Everyone was so happy and joyful. That night, everything was just perfect.

After all the festivities had ended, Garth took Lilly off to his favorite place in the former Eastern Pack's territory: the stream. The sky was clear, and the crystal water reflected the large and beautiful full moon. The young couple stared at the water in silence before Garth finally spoke up.

"So what do we do now?" he asked dreamily.

"I don't care," Lilly responded. "I'm with you, and that's all that matters right now."

Garth smiled when Lilly said this. "Let's get some sleep now. We can snuggle up together to stay warm."

Lilly looked up at the sky and noticed that it was actually getting chilly. A light breeze had just started to pick up. The thought of her snuggling up with Garth had already started to warm her up. "Alright," Lilly accepted Garth's offer.

Garth and Lilly lied down next to the stream and moved in closer to each other. Garth wrapped his arms around Lilly and the new mates were soon fast asleep. Each had a smile on their face.

**Author's Note: As always, review! Don't forget to vote on the poll, it will be closing sometime this Sunday. Also, I added a lot more to my profile, including a whole new section on my OCs! You should check it out. Vote while you're at it! Thanks for reading!**


	38. Chapter 38

**Author's Note: I think this is the new cutest and longest chapter I've written. But I'm not sure, so you can tell me in a review! Hooray!**

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The next day was bright and warm yet not too hot. Garth and Lilly slept in somewhat late, as they had been out late the night before. When Garth did wake up, however, he found that he was still wrapped around Lilly. They were both lying on their right sides on a grassy area right next to the stream. Somehow during his sleep, he had managed to cover most of Lilly's body with his torso and his arms. Lilly would definitely wake up to find that she was quite warm and comfortable on this beautiful day.

Garth kept his paws on Lilly's body and cautiously inched his head closer to hers. Soon, he had his head touching the back of hers. Lilly's fur was so soft and Garth could not get over the fact of how comfortable he was right next to her. He was so happy that Lilly was finally his mate; his very own mate! She was his forever! Burying his nose in her back neck fur, he promised himself right then and there that he would never ever leave this fragile and adorable little angel.

Approximately ten minutes later, Lilly woke up. She pulled out from Garth and then proceeded to roll over to her left side so that she could see why she was so warm and comfortable. Garth and Lilly looked at each other with their noses an inch apart. They did not know it, but they actually looked very much like Kate and Humphrey did when they woke up in a strange den somewhere far away from home. Lilly smiled at Garth and finally spoke, after an awkward yet sweet silence.

"Morning Hot Stuff," she said.

Garth chuckled when he heard Lilly's nickname for him. "Good morning Angel," he replied with a warm smile illuminating his face.

"Well, I guess this is our first day as mates. How does it feel to you?" Lilly said starting a conversation. She never started conversations because she was so shy. The fact that she was being open with her new mate Garth was a sure sign that she was more than comfortable around him. To be honest, Lilly felt more secure than she ever had before right now with Garth in front of her.

"It's the best thing I've ever experienced," Garth replied. He had that feeling you get right when you lie in bed to go to sleep after a long day at the end of a week. Garth had nothing but pure contentment and joy flowing through his systems right now. It was… Perfect.

Lilly decided to explain to Garth how he was making her feel. "Well you are making me feel more secure than I ever have before." Lilly rolled back on her right side and scooted back in towards Garth. She practically pushed herself back into her mate's arms. "Uh, yeah, will you put your arms around me again?"

"I'd love to." Garth hugged Lilly tightly and arranged himself much like he had been earlier with his muzzle and head just under Lilly's left ear.

"I love this almost as much as I love you," Lilly said soothingly.

"I wish we could stay like this forever," Garth said.

Garth and Lilly looked at the stream. The water made them even calmer than they already were. The stream was just as beautiful as it always was, but whenever you're in a happy mood, everything seems prettier. This was certainly true for Garth and Lilly at this moment in time.

"The water is so pretty and relaxing," Lilly stated.

"Yeah, but it could never be as beautiful as you," Garth reminded her.

"Oh Garth," Lilly said.

"It's true."

"That settles it then."

"Settles what?" Garth said as he turned a bit in order to see Lilly's face.

"It just shows that I really did find the perfect mate for me. I am so glad you didn't have to marry Kate."

"Oh, me too! I just wish everyone had realized that the whole 'alphas can't marry omegas' idea was dumb before Kate got hurt. But I guess that's what it takes sometimes."

"I think she's glad it happened."

"How can you tell?" Garth asked as he put his head back where it was.

"I don't know. Sister thing. I think she's glad because if she didn't get hurt, she might have never been able to be with Humphrey. Then me and you might not be together."

"I guess you're right. I know my dad's stubborn enough to have kept the law in place."

"Was he always like that?"

"No. He used to be so cheerful all the time. But then…" Garth paused. He really did not want to bring up anything sad right now, especially something that had scarred him so much. However, he decided Lilly should know what really happened. "Then my mom died."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Lilly frowned. "What was her name?"

Garth suddenly remembered that Lilly really had no background information on him. She did not know how Mary had died, or how Garth had had so much trouble and hard times in his life, but most importantly, Lilly did not know about Garth's "former" relationship with Christina. Garth thought that he should at least ask if Lilly wanted to know some more about what happened to him.

"Her name was Mary," he said. "She… um…" Garth started to get a little teary-eyed when he thought about what had happened back in that terrible storm.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lilly asked attempting to comfort Garth. She was beginning to realize that maybe Garth needed some comforting himself. Although Lilly and Garth had only really known each other for a few days, Garth was always the one that would comfort Lilly. Maybe now it was Lilly's turn to comfort Garth.

"I don't know," Garth said sniffling. Everything that had happened in that fateful week of his life would cause him to get emotional forever. "I guess I should spill the whole story now that we've brought it up."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Lilly said as she realized that she was the one who brought it up.

"No, don't be. I'll be fine."

Trying to keep himself composed, Garth then told Lilly the whole story on how Mary's terrible demise had come around. When he finished, he found that Lilly had turned herself back to face him. Lilly then leaned in and put her arms around Garth, hugging him as they both continued to lie in the grass next to the stream. A couple tears rolled down Garth's face.

"It's okay, I'm right here," Lilly comforted.

"Thanks Lilly," Garth responded as he hugged her back. "You mean a lot to me. But…"

"But what?"

"Okay, I need you to be very understanding with this next thing and not get defensive or anything."

"Uh-oh. What is it?"

"Well," Garth began as he rolled over so that Lilly now had her arms around him. "Well… Uh… Before my mom died, I had a… A girlfriend. There, I told you. I had a girlfriend."

Lilly could not believe it. Garth actually had dated another wolf. Or maybe… wolves! She was speechless, but she finally managed to stutter, "What?"

"I had a girlfriend named Christina. But now that I've met you, I know that you are the only one I can ever be with. Now please don't get angry or go berserk or anything like that, because that really was a bad relationship, although it did start out nice."

"Nice?"

"At the time, yes."

"Garth…"

"I know. You hate it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier and there really is no excuse for that."

"Garth, I don't know what to say. It's wrong for me to think that you don't have a right to ever have dated anyone but me, but honestly that's what I'm thinking. I can't help it. How close were you though?"

"I don't know, Lilly. I thought we were close, but she went to Alpha School before me and when she got back, she turned out to be a monster!" Garth frowned. "And then she tore my heart apart," he said as images of the terrible break up scene flashed through his mind. "She started dating my best friend behind my back. She said that I was 'way too weak' and had 'the ugliest body build ever!' Then she told me that I had the ugliest red fur that she had ever seen. I hate her so much because she tore me to pieces."

"What a freak! How could anyone ever do such a thing to you?" Lilly said. She was now truly sorry that she had been jealous of this "girlfriend" and wished she had just kept silent.

"It's not like that, Lilly. I wasn't always this way. I mean, I wasn't always the way you see me now. I was kind of a scrawny kid before I went to Alpha School. She was right."

"No Garth! No, she wasn't. Don't ever believe anything like that about you! You are and always have been perfect."

Garth smiled. "Thanks Lilly. Thanks for understanding."

"Oh, well, you're welcome. I shouldn't have been jealous in the first place. I'm sorry."

Chuckling, Garth said, "Forget it. Besides, she has nothing that you can be jealous of."

Lilly and Garth both laughed at this.

"But really," Lilly continued, "she left you right before your mom died?"

"Yep," Garth confirmed. "You could say I lost three things in that terrible week. I lost a girlfriend, I lost my mom, and I lost my dad."

Lilly was puzzled by the last thing Garth mentioned. "Your dad? How?"

"He turned cold after my mom died, remember? At first, I thought he would make it, but then, he got upset with me constantly bringing her up. I have to talk about things a lot after they happen in order to get over them. My dad is not like that. He wants to just drop things and never think about them again. So when I kept asking him about Mom, he got mad, and he's been rather cold ever since then."

"Oh Garth…" Lilly began. She wasn't sure what to say to all of this. "I'm… I'm so sorry that you had to go through so much all at once." Lilly hugged Garth tightly.

Garth turned back so that he was facing Lilly again. "Thanks," he said with a smile. "I love you so much."

Lilly hugged Garth again. "No problem sweet thing. I love you too."

Garth smiled at Lilly again. "Before we leave this, I just want you to know that that was the only wolf I've ever dated besides you."

"Oh! That's such a relief!" Lilly said a bit too overdramatically.

"I thought it would be," Garth said.

Garth and Lilly turned themselves over again so that they were facing the stream. Before long, Lilly was in her new favorite spot again: Garth's arms. The two newlyweds laid out by the stream and continued to enjoy nothing but the spectacular view and the fact that they were arm in arm with their one true love.

"It's just too perfect," Lilly said.

Garth thought he already knew the answer, but he still asked. "What?"

"Just me, an omega, being married to a hot-shot alpha like you. And you're such a dream! It's like I don't deserve you."

"Lilly, I love you because you're one of the few wolves who just cares for everyone. You have this charming air around you and a way of making me feel so special. You are unlike anyone I have ever met in my entire life. You're so sweet and funny and you just make me feel like I'm more than just another alpha in the pack. You make me feel like I'm loved, like I belong, like I'm at home. If anything, I don't deserve you."

"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, Garth," Lilly gasped.

"Really?"

"Yep."

"I'm glad to be the one that said it."

"Garth, anyone that's been through as much as you have deserves an outstanding mate. I will do everything I can to be that outstanding mate."

"Thanks Lilly."

"You're welcome."

Garth and Lilly kept snuggling arm in arm. Neither of them ever wanted to end this moment that they were sharing. They were so in love, and so crazy for each other. It was just as Lilly had said: everything was too perfect.

**Author's Note: Just a few things before I finish this update. First, the poll will be closing at 9pm on Sunday following Central Time. I'd love to hear what you think about my next story. Also, if you didn't see the last author's note, I did break my toe, so I am not sure how that will continue to affect my updating. Finally, this is the update for Saturday, July 7, 2012. I know it's early but it's what I can do for now. I also apologize for no update yesterday. I tried to make that up with this LONG, CUTE chapter. But if a toe breaks… Stories are hard to update. … What? Ha ha! Sorry. Let me know what you thought of this chapter in a review. Thanks for reading!**

**And I guess that this chapter answered another question that is in the summary. Did you catch it? Let me know!**

**:-)**


	39. Chapter 39

**Author's Note: Hmm. Garth and Lilly can't sleep straight outside forever. They better find a den… or make one.**

Chapter Thirty-Nine

After they had cuddled together for a bit longer, Garth and Lilly decided to get up from lying by the stream and walk back to the main valley. On their way there, they chatted.

"You know what I just realized?" Garth asked. "We're gonna need a den. I don't want to live with my dad anymore, and I don't think we should live with your parents."

"Well I guess we can just make one. We can ask my parents where a good spot would be, okay?" Lilly said.

"Sounds good to me," Garth responded.

Headed to Winston and Eve's den, Garth and Lilly walked side by side slowly moving in towards each other. Soon, they found themselves almost in a trance with their bodies practically pushed up onto each other. They both loved the feeling of the other right by their side. It was a very romantic walk for Garth and Lilly.

Eve came out to greet Garth and Lilly when she saw them coming up. She was still a little uneasy because of the fact that her daughter was now married, but fortunately, she had herself under control. "Good afternoon, Lilly darling," she said. Then she turned to Garth. "Oh. Hi," she managed to say with an obviously fake smile.

Garth was trying his best to stay on Eve's nice side, but he finally had to conclude that Eve could make one tough mother-in-law. It would be in his best interest if he watched his back… ALWAYS!

"Hey Mom," Lilly said. "Garth and I wanted to talk to you and Daddy about building a den."

Garth nodded as he thought of how cute Lilly had sounded when she said "Daddy" instead of just "Dad."

"Sweetie, you don't have to build a den. You could just sleep in our den and Garth could sleep with his dad over in his den," Eve suggested. _That way, "nothing" could happen,_ she thought.

Garth rolled his eyes when he heard Eve's suggestion. She really was way too overprotective. He wondered what it would have been like to have her as his mother, but then decided it probably wouldn't be fun.

Lilly laughed. "No Mom, we want our OWN den; just for the two of us. Besides, it will be fun to start our own home and raise a family."

"Ouch," Eve cringed when she heard Lilly's "plans." Unfortunately, she did not realize that she had spoken out loud in front of the young wolves. "Well okay," she continued through a gritted smile, "if you want that."

Garth had decided it was best to keep silent during this conversation. After all, he did not want to say anything that he would regret. He couldn't have Eve killing him. If that happened, Lilly would be devastated. He finally decided that now was an okay time for him to open up his mouth and speak. "Thanks, Ms. Eve," he said. "Do you have an idea of where we could dig one out?"

"Somewhere that's NOT too close to you and Daddy," Lilly said. "We need our independence."

Garth could not agree more with Lilly. They did need their independence.

"I guess you could dig one out over there," Eve said. Using her right paw, she gestured over to a small cliff that was close to one of the main waterfalls in the Western Pack's territory. It was somewhat close to Eve and Winston's den, but it was not too close. Lilly and Garth looked at where she had pointed and smiled. It was perfect. It was a good distance from Eve, enough to give Garth a good sensation of security and it looked like it would have a private feeling to it. Lilly and Garth thanked Eve and walked over to check it out.

"Well, it certainly has a great view," Garth observed when they got there. From where he was standing, he had a clear view of the main valley and a spectacular view of the waterfall that was the main source of the Western Pack's water. Over to the right, it was possible to faintly see the stream that divided the Western and Eastern Pack's, although now it would most likely just be another stream, because the packs were united through Lilly and Garth's marriage. "I think we could get comfortable here," Garth finished.

"Yeah, we could," Lilly said.

For the next few hours, Garth and Lilly dug out their den. The ground was soft, so it was not too difficult on them. When they finished, they found that they had made a den which was about twenty feet deep and nearly four feet high. It really is amazing how much work can be done in such little time when you are right next to your true love. Garth and Lilly finished off their work by bringing in soft leaves and grass for bedding. Lilly planted a few lilies and wild roses around the entrance to create a cozier feel to their new home.

"It looks great," Garth said as he stepped back to admire the work he and Lilly had just completed.

Lilly got up from planting her flowers. The lilies were perfect white and the roses were deep red. "Yep. Do you like the flowers?"

"I love them," Garth answered. "Did you choose red and white on purpose?"

"Yeah," Lilly said. "I thought it was a cute representation of us. We have the red for you, and the white for me."

"It's adorable," Garth said with a smile on his face.

"Well, come on. I'm hungry. Let's see if someone wants to share a caribou with us."

When Lilly mentioned food, Garth realized that he was very hungry. He had not eaten since the night before, right after the wedding. With all the digging work done, he really was quite famished. "Right behind ya," he said. "I can't believe I didn't realize how hungry I was."

Lilly and Garth ended up sharing a caribou that Kate had caught earlier in the day on one of her hunts. Humphrey and Kate ate with Lilly and Garth, and the two couples enjoyed talking about newlywed topics. They had only been married for twenty-four hours.

Later that evening, Lilly and Garth settled into their new den. As they snuggled up to each other, Lilly decided to ask Garth something that she had been thinking about all day. "Garth," she began. "What do you think about having puppies?"

Not expecting this topic to be brought up by Lilly so soon, Garth was speechless. "Well, uh…" He thought on what he was about to say. If he said the wrong thing, Lilly might get the wrong idea on what he thought about this somewhat awkward topic. "I don't know right now," Garth finally answered. He did think that one day it would be nice to have a puppy or two, but right now, he did not know what his thoughts were.

"I want to be a mother! I want to have my own family and teach our pups how to impersonate turtles!" Lilly said. Apparently, she was a lot more excited than Garth was about the matter.

Garth could not help but laugh at what Lilly said. She was too cute. "That would be interesting," he answered. "But I don't know if I'm ready."

"Why not?" Lilly questioned.

"Well, you see… I don't know. I did have a rough childhood. I think that besides losing you, my worst fear is to not be able to support my pups. I don't want to leave them alone and I especially don't want to turn out to be a bad father."

"How could an amazing alpha like you end up as a bad father?"

"I don't know. I just have bad memories of what happened between me and my dad, I guess. And I don't want that to happen to our family."

"I think I understand what you're saying. We can wait on puppies." Lilly hated to say that puppies would have to wait, but she knew it was the right thing to do. If Garth wasn't ready, then he just was not ready. But someday things would be different. Garth would finally be over all the terrible tragedies that had happened during his life. Only then would Lilly be able to get down to business with Garth. Only then would she finally get her dream family.

"Thanks Lilly. Thanks for understanding. It means a lot to me."

"You're welcome, Garth," Lilly said as she rolled over so that she was facing with her back toward Garth. A silent tear slid down her face. Lilly really, really, really hated that she would have to wait on having puppies, but she still knew it was the right thing to do.

Although he did not know that Lilly was silently crying, Garth could sense that something was wrong with his mate. He scooted over on his right side closer towards her and wrapped his paws around her just as he had the night before.

Lilly loved having Garth's arms wrapped around her even more now than she had the night before. Before long, she was asleep, dreaming of the family that would one day be hers.

Sensing that his sweet omega mate was asleep, Garth set his head on top of the left side of Lilly's neck. He nuzzled his nose into her fur and whispered, "I love you," before he too fell asleep.

**Author's Note: Attention all readers with FanFiction accounts! This is your last chance to vote on the poll regarding my next Alpha and Omega story. I need to start forming a plot as soon as possible. The votes are really close now between two particular options! Get your vote in! The poll will close tonight at nine pm central daylight time! Until next time, this is your author Humphrey Loves Kate signing out. Remember to review! Reviews from members without FanFiction accounts are accepted! Thanks for reading! **


	40. Chapter 40

**Author's Note: THIS IS IT! THE FINAL CHAPTER IN GARTH'S STORY! YAY! **

**Sorry it took a little while longer. I had to make some "executive" decisions in regards to the plot. I ended up going with what I had pretty much planned all along. With that being said, I have a song suggestion: All This Time by Britt Nicole is a great song to listen to while reading this chapter. (Here you go. /watch?v=8h_9wp6sk5s Just open Google in a background tab and paste it into the search bar and it will be the first video that comes up. I highly recommend the song!) If you take the song suggestion, click play right when you see this symbol {}. ENJOY THE FINAL CHAPTER IN GARTH'S STORY!**

Chapter Forty

"Garth! Garth! Wake up," a voice said cheerfully from outside Garth and Lilly's new den.

Garth rolled over from his resting position on Lilly and looked outside of the den. Tony waited for him and looked unusually happy. "What's going on?" Garth asked.

"You'd better find out for yourself! There's someone back at our den that wants to see you!" Tony answered.

Tony ran off back to his den with Garth sleepily jogging behind him. When they arrived, Garth sat down and waited outside of the den while Tony went inside to get this "visitor."

As Garth anxiously waited outside of his den, he tried to guess who could possibly be so in need to see him. He was too tired to think however, and before long he was very close to dozing off. Fortunately, Tony ran back outside and caused Garth to wake up.

Tony invited the mysterious wolf outside of the den. "Alright, come on out… Mary."

Garth's eyes widened when he heard the wolf's name! It was the same name as his mom's! But it was impossible for it to be… her. Wasn't it?

A light brown wolf with green eyes stepped out of the den and into the light. IT WAS MARY! Garth could not believe it! He knew it was his mom; he could recognize her anywhere! Garth's mom was alive! She was not dead! She was alive!

"M-mom?" Garth questioned although he already knew the answer.

"Yes Garth, it's me," Mary answered.

Garth did not waste one more second of time. He ran up to his mom and gave her an incredibly long hug! Just the fact that she had somehow survived her fall was overwhelming to Garth. His heart was leaping with happiness. Everything bad that had happened to him, all the sadness and pain that had left scars on his heart, all of that was healing at an alarming rate. Garth suddenly felt something that he had not felt in years: he felt whole. He felt entirely complete. All his sadness was over with now! Everything was more than okay.

{} **Author Note: Continue reading when the singing starts.**

"Oh Mom," Garth said, "I… I missed you so much. What happened?"

Mary pulled out of Garth's embrace and decided to spill her story. "Actually, until just yesterday, I wasn't sure what happened. I know now, however." Mary explained what had happened to her.

"During that terrible storm a while back, I did fall down the cliff. But about halfway down, a sudden gust of wind blew against the cliff and slowed my fall down. At the same time, however, the wind gust shoved me into the cliff wall and I hit my head. I was out cold for who knows how long. When I woke up, however, it was sunny outside. I didn't know who I was, or where I came from, so I started walking. Eventually, I found a pack that took me in as one of their members. I lived there for months actually as an omega."

"An omega?" Tony asked in disbelief. "How?"

"I don't know. Maybe the bump on my head showed a different side of my personality. But they saw me as an omega, and I believed them.

"Anyway, I lived there for months as an omega. But on one particular day, I think two days ago, I was out with some of my new friends just kind of walking around our territory and hanging out. Suddenly, the ground started rumbling and we all looked up to see a caribou stampede heading from the west and right towards us."

Garth and Tony looked at each other. They both knew that that was more than likely the same caribou stampede that had caused such an uproar in the valley on Garth and Lilly's wedding day.

"We all split up and ran out of the way of the caribou. However, as I was running alongside the woods, I looked back to check if I was clear of the oncoming herd. While I was looking behind my back, I ran the upper side of my head straight into a tree and knocked myself out again. I awoke maybe a day and a half later with 'strange' wolves around me inside of an unknown den. Startled by all the strangers, I ran away as fast as I could to get away from all of them. When I knew none of them were following me, I stopped and sat down. And I suddenly remembered that those 'strange' wolves were my new friends and that I was the mate of the Head Alpha of the Eastern Pack. So, I headed back to my home territory and arrived early this morning."

"One question," Tony began. "What pack did you become a member of?"

"Funny thing about that," Mary chuckled, "I can't remember any of the names of anyone in that pack, so I especially cannot remember the pack's name."

"It really doesn't matter," Garth said. "All that matters now is that you are alive and well. Welcome home Mom."

Mary smiled when she heard this from her son. It was good to be home.

"What's going on?" a voice said in a sleepy tone.

Everyone turned to look at where the voice had come from. Very tired and lethargic, Lilly was making her way up to the recently reunited family. Her eyes appeared to be still foggy with sleep and she looked like she might fall out at any second. "Daddy told me I'd find you up here Garth. So what's going on?"

"Um, Lilly," Garth began, "meet my mom." Garth laughed somewhat nervously when he said this.

When Lilly heard this her eyes shot open and she fully woke up. "WHAT?"

"Yeah, I know," Garth said. He walked over to her and sat right next to her so that his shoulder was touching hers. "Lilly, this is my mother, Mary. Mom, this is my mate, Lilly."

"WHAT? YOU'RE MARRIED?" Mary said in pure astonishment.

"Well I was going to tell you right after you finished your story, but I didn't get the chance." Garth replied.

"Okay, let's get this straight," Mary said. "When I 'disappeared,' you were upset over your breakup. So I guess you went to alpha school and found a nice and sweet alpha to marry somewhere along the way, is that right?"

Garth and Lilly looked at each other with smirks on their faces. "No, not exactly," Garth explained. "You see, Lilly is an omega, and while…"

"WHAT! How can you have an omega as a mate? That's against pack law!" Mary said.

"Not anymore. While you were gone, everyone realized how stupid that law was. After a wolf almost died because of it, the law was abolished. And, Lilly and I are not the only alpha and omega couple."

"You know what," Tony started, "a whole lot has changed since you've been gone. I think we all have some explaining to do."

"Why were you gone anyway?" Lilly asked Mary. Everyone laughed at this.

Before he knew it, Garth was listening to Mary tell Lilly the whole story on why she was still alive and why she had been gone the entire time. Soon after, Garth, Lilly and Tony explained how things had changed between the two packs and that the Western and Eastern Packs were now united as the United Pack of Jasper. They also explained how the abolishment of the alpha and omega law was tied into everything and how Garth and Lilly had ended up together. Garth listened and spoke throughout the whole thing and while he was doing these things, he realized that everything really had come together in the end. Tony would be a better wolf now. And Garth had not only a happy mate, but a happy family as well. It was all because no matter what happens, love will last or it will fail. In Garth's story, love was most definitely lasting.

**Author's Note: I thought that song was very appropriate for this chapter.**

**Also, I like to point out that the "gust of wind" that saved Mary is and always has been in chapter 21 when Mary falls off the cliff. Just so you know. **

**So, how was the story? Was it good? Not cliché? Original? Heart touching? You have the wonderful privilege of answering all these questions and more in a review if you'd like. **

**How about some special thanks? Okay, here we go.**

**SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FANFICTION MEMBERS AND ANONYMOUS REVIEWERS!**

** Thank you AaOWaSaCD4ever for being my very first reviewer! You were not only the first reviewer to my story, but you were the very first person to review anything I ever did on FanFiction! Congratulations!**

**Thank you theMikMik! You were the very first to read my story on most days when I updated in the morning. I also have taken your comment on this story being "original" to heart. I now try to make everything I write original.**

**Thank you to elete13, The Idealist and Chaoticlover for giving me plot ideas. I may use one or both of them in "alternate endings." (Mwhahahahahaha!) Sorry if you mentioned an idea and I forgot to list you.**

**Thank you to all of you who were especially understanding during my little illness and other physical and mental difficulties throughout the story. Ha ha!**

**Thank you again to the Idealist for coming in perhaps a bit later than some people yet not failing to review every chapter as you caught up!**

**I thank Gordon Pasha for commenting on how a particular phrase was "poignant" in the story. Made me feel accomplished.**

**Thank you to everyone who encouraged me throughout this story. I think that was pretty much everyone. Happy face!**

**Thank you to all of you anonymous reviewers who read and reviewed this story even though you did not have an account. (That would be Crash Bandicoot, A Wolf Fanatic and A1pha0m3gafan36 . I can't trace any others, cause there was no name.) By the way, I highly advise any and all anonymous readers to get an account. You don't even have to write stories. You can just leave signed reviews and talk to authors if you want. There are some great authors on this site. And you can subscribe and favorite authors and their stories! Plus you get to vote on the polls! That's an extra feature. ;-) It is well worth the ten minutes or however long it takes you to make an account. **

**Special thanks to everyone who liked this story enough to favorite it.**

**Even bigger special thanks to everyone who liked my writing enough to add me as a favorite author! You are all wonderful readers!**

**And now, *drum roll* the moment everyone's been waiting for! The next story will be…**

**KATE'S STORY!**

**The votes were close, but "Another character's story" ended up winning by one vote. WOW! I didn't want to do Lilly's Story, because I just did Garth's and I wanted a couple change. Also, I couldn't do Humphrey's Story, because there is too much about his past and whatever already. *GASP* That could come across as cliché. Plus I wanted to write about a different gender anyway.**

**By the way, I have a new poll out asking on how I should update Kate's Story. Please submit your vote by Saturday the fourteenth at noon Central Time.**

**So Kate's Story will begin soon, hopefully within the next week. I'll try to form a plot, but a lot of you know that I just have to plan as I write. I can't put a plot on paper; it won't work. So I'll cook up something in my head and you guys get to see what happens. Good-by now! Thanks for reading!**


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